History Boys Barnett and Parker reunite for Rosencrantz

First Published 1 April 2011, Last Updated 1 April 2011

History Boys stars Samuel Barnett and Jamie Parker are to join Tim Curry in Trevor Nunn’s forthcoming production of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead at the Theatre Royal Haymarket this summer.

Opening on 21 June, Tom Stoppard’s play is an inventive retelling of Hamlet through the eyes of two of its minor characters. Vaguely aware that they are bit parts in a much bigger story of which they have no direct knowledge, Rosencrantz (Barnett) and Guildenstern (Parker) inhabit a world completely beyond their grasp.

Barnett and Parker were part of the original cast of the National Theatre’s hugely successful 2004 production of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. After wowing London audiences and winning the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play, the play transferred to Broadway before embarking on an international tour and being adapted into a critically acclaimed film.

Barnett returned to the National for his most recent stage outing in Women Beware Women. A regular face on the London stage, his other credits include The Whiskey Taster and When You Cure Me for the Bush theatre, Dealer’s Choice at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Frankenstein at the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre. On screen, the actor has appeared in Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, Miss Marple, Desperate Romantics and Wilfred Owen: A Tale Of Remembrance, in which he starred in the title role.

Parker was last seen on the London stage as Prince Hal in the Olivier Award-winning productions of Henry IV Parts I and II at Shakespeare’s Globe, where he previously appeared in A New World – The Life Of Thomas Paine and As You Like It. The actor has also appeared in Singer at the Tricycle theatre and returned to the National Theatre for The Revenger’s Tragedy. His extensive television credits include The Hour, Horne And Cordon, Silent Witness and Wire In The Blood.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead follows the venue’s current critically acclaimed production of Flare Path, which announced today it has extended its run to 11 June.

Speaking about his inaugural season, which will see a host of international stars take to the Haymarket stage, Nunn said: “Having begun with one of Rattigan’s first plays, the semi-autobiographical Flare Path – last performed in the West End in 1943 – I am then realising a 40 year-old dream by at last directing Tom Stoppard’s first masterpiece Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead.” 

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead is followed by Nunn’s third production, The Tempest, in which, as previously announced, he will direct Ralph Fiennes as Prospero.

CM

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