Shane Richie as Archie Rice
Film, theatre and television star Shane Richie will play Archie Rice in a brand new production of John Osborne’s The Entertainer.
Chosen as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century by Michael Billington, the show will come to Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn from November 18 to 23, 2019.
In the play, set in 1982, Archie Rice is a washed-up entertainer playing a summer season.
As his soldier son sails with the Task Force to liberate the Falklands, his daughter Jean returns from campaigning against the war, and Archie’s professional and personal lives collide with devastating consequences.
Shane Richie has balanced a hugely successful forty-year career between theatre, film and television.
He has been a regular fixture on prime-time television including his role of the lovable rogue Alfie Moon in BBC One’s Eastenders.
Theatre credits include the London West End and Manchester production of Grease and One Flew over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
He also starred as Hugo/ Loco Chanelle at London’s West End theatre, The Apollo, in Everybody’s Talking about Jamie.
Shane Ritchie said: “Following in the black patent shoes of Olivier, Gambon, Lindsay & Branagh, it’s an incredible honour to be asked to play one of literature’s greatest fictional characters, Archie Rice.
“In the words of the great man himself “you’re a long time dead, let’s just whoop it up!”
Directed by Sean O’Connor, this innovative adaptation will open at Curve in Leicester on August 27 and travel the UK before completing the tour at Theatre Severn in November.
Sean O’Connor said: “Osborne’s story of a man who faces the end of his career in the declining days of a popular art form in the context of Britain struggling to establish its place on the international stage has never seemed more relevant or more timely.
“I’m hugely excited to bring this new vision of one of the 20th century’s finest plays to the stage and completely thrilled to have secured Shane – one of the great entertainers of today- to play one of the most iconic roles in British theatre.”
Tickets for The Entertainer at Theatre Severn are on sale now and can be booked online at www.theatresevern.co.uk, by telephone (01743 281281) and from the venue Box Office.
