Sir Ian McKellen will take on his first major theatrical role since since his fall from the stage in 2024.
He will star in Lear, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear, at a small theatre in east London this winter.
It will mark his first major theatrical endeavour since he lost his footing whilst performing in Player Kings in June 2024 at the Noel Coward Theatre, breaking his wrist and chipping a vertebrae.
After the incident he said he planned to take some time off but had no plans for retirement.
Sir Ian will star in Lear, reimagined by Simon Stephens and Jay Miller, at the 220-seat Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick.
The show will be part of the Yard’s first season in its new building after it opened in 2011 in a warehouse using materials reclaimed from the nearby Olympic Park.
The original building has been demolished and replaced with an entirely new venue on the same spot, designed by Takero Shimazaki Architects.
The curved auditorium features reused brick from the original building.
The programme also features the London premiere of an adaptation of Jackie Collins’ 1968 novel The World Is Full Of Married Men, as well as a revival of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When The Rainbow Is Enuf, directed by Diane Page.
Also featured is an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s classic novel Mrs Dalloway, and There’s Something About Adam Black, the debut play by Sex Education writer Troy Hunter.
Founder and artistic director Jay Miller said: “In 2011 I opened The Yard as a DIY theatre that was supposed to be here for six months.
“On The Yard’s 15th anniversary, I’ll open it again. Same spirit, this time in a better, bigger theatre.
“In the 12 months we’ve been closed, we’ve been playing with shows that pop.
“A debut play by Troy Hunter; toy dolls playing with Jackie Collins; a brilliant actor playing in ways he’s never played before.
“Virginia Woolf, Ntozake Shange, and the world’s worst band, all on the same stage in the same season.
“They said it wouldn’t happen. It’s happening. Deep breath in.”
