Warren Mitchell is to bring his performance in Jeff Baron’s Visiting Mr Green to Trafalgar Studio 1 on 3 April, following the production’s national tour. Gideon Turner joins Mitchell in the two-hander, which is directed by Patrick Garland and is booking in Studio 1 until 10 May, with a press night on 8 April.
In Baron’s comedy drama, Mitchell plays the role of widower Mr Green, who is almost hit by a speeding car driven by corporate executive Ross Gardiner (Turner). Found guilty of reckless driving, Ross is ordered to spend the next six months making weekly visits to Mr Green. At first each resents the other’s presence, but gradually, as old wounds are reopened and family secrets revealed, both men come to understand and tolerate one another’s differences.
Mitchell, now 82, has enjoyed a long stage, film and television career, and is probably best known for his portrayal of curmudgeonly pensioner Alf Garnett, a role which began in the theatre in the 1960s and was developed into television comedy series Till Death Us Do Part. Mitchell’s association with the role continued on television and film over the course of several decades. Among his many stage credits are Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman at the National Theatre in 1979, for which he won a Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a Revival, Yasmina Reza’s Art, Pinter’s The Caretaker and The Homecoming and, in 2003, Miller’s The Price at the Tricycle and Apollo, which earned him another Laurence Olivier Award, this time for Best Performance in a Supporting Role.
Turner has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and English Touring Theatre and has London stage credits including Modern Man at the New End and Things Of Dry Hours at the Gate. On television he has been seen in Hotel Babylon, Cromwell, Bad Girls and Dalziel And Pascoe.
Visiting Mr Green premiered in Massachusetts in 1996, opening in New York the following year. Since then it has gone on to find success all over the world and has been translated into 22 languages.
CB