Ian McKellen is set to play King Lear in what will be his first major theatrical role since falling off the stage into the audience in 2024. The accident, which caused him "agonising pains," occurred during a performance of Player Kings in the West End and forced him to withdraw from the production. Now, McKellen will return as Shakespeare's tragic king—a character he portrayed to great acclaim in 2007 and 2017—in the opening season of the redeveloped Yard Theatre in east London.
A Major Coup for the Yard Theatre
The Yard Theatre, known for its DIY spirit and adventurous experimental work with emerging artists, has always punched above its weight since it was established as a temporary venue in a disused warehouse in Hackney Wick in 2011. Last month, it won an Olivier Award for The Glass Menagerie, the swansong production in its original home before it was demolished and rebuilt. The new curved auditorium, on the same site, doubles the audience capacity, but McKellen's Lear will be an especially hot ticket because the venue remains intimate, with just 220 seats.
The Yard's founder and artistic director, Jay Miller, will stage Lear, a "reimagining" developed over the past year with playwright Simon Stephens. Miller described it as "a beautiful show about what it means to be a king but also about loss, memory, and what it is to give a life to the theatre—which is what Ian has done."
McKellen's Enduring Passion for Theatre
Miller praised McKellen, who turns 87 this month, as "one of the most inspiring people I've ever met." He added: "His ideas for theatre are extraordinary. At the age of 86, he's restlessly still trying to figure out what it can do. His knowledge of Shakespeare and what it means to people is really important to me—he doesn't try to intellectualise it; it doesn't become an academic exercise." Instead, Miller said, the actor asks: "How can we make it really land so people will have an evening that they'll never forget?"
McKellen first played Edgar opposite Robert Eddison's Lear in 1974 and later portrayed Kent opposite Brian Cox's Lear in 1990. He first took on the title role in a 2007 Royal Shakespeare Company production that transferred to the West End, toured globally, and was filmed for television. Ten years later, he played Lear again in a Chichester Festival Theatre production that also moved to the West End.
Miller noted that Shakespeare's characters have "become mythic figures for our culture" and that actors of McKellen's "calibre and genius" realise they'll "never finish the job... Acting is something that you'll never perfect; you just keep on trying to find new things about who we are."
Other Productions in the Yard's New Season
McKellen's Lear is one of six productions in the Yard's new season. In September, there will be a 50th anniversary production of Ntozake Shange's "choreo-poem" for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, directed by Diane Page with music by Jammz. Miller called it "one of those plays that should be in our theatrical canon but isn't" and said Shange, who died in 2018, "should be up there with the Sarah Kanes, the Caryl Churchills."
Over the summer, the Yard will host the London premiere of Malmö Stadsteater's puppet production The World Is Full of Married Men, which brings to life Jackie Collins's 1968 debut novel using "adapted Barbie dolls." Miller described it as "a smash hit in Stockholm" and "sexy, irreverent, and funny," adding that Collins "was way ahead of her time in terms of the feminism she was standing by." Translated from Swedish by Lulu Raczka, the play unfolds against the backdrop of 1960s London media industry "that doesn't feel that far away."
Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway has been adapted by Holly Robinson for a production directed next year by Anna Himali Howard. Miller said it will ask "big questions about the choices we make in our lives and whether we're in control of them or not." Opening in January, the new play There's Something About Adam Black—written by Troy Hunter and directed by Tatenda Shamiso—is a "hilarious" romcom about two Black gay men. "We've been working with Troy for five years—I think he's going to be a star," said Miller.
The season also includes the previously announced Philosophy of the World, a show by the company In Bed With My Brother that tells the story of cult rockers the Shaggs, once dubbed "the best worst band of all time." A hit at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, it was originally developed at the Yard. "We're a key engine room for art and culture in London and beyond," said Miller. "We're still really excited about what the potential of theatre can be." Tickets for every production start at £10.
The New Yard Theatre
Designed by Takero Shimazaki Architects, the new Yard has an improved eco footprint and will bear "the influence of what was there before but pretty much everything is new," said Miller. "We have a dedicated studio now for our work with young people, an office for the first time, and dressing rooms for the first time—with some showers!"
