Whatsonstage.com reports that
Michael Gambon will silently take on the title role of
Samuel Beckett's
Eh Joe at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. The 30-minute play will be seen for a limited run of 30 performances (twice nightly) from June 27th through July 15th.
Gambon previously starred in the play--in which his character utters nary a word--at the Dublin
Gate Theatre as part of the Beckett Centennial Festival last month. He will once again be joined by
Penelope Wilton. In
Eh Joe, Gambon plays a man wounded from a tragic love affair. Wilton supplies the monologizing disembodied voice who haunts and taunts Joe, as he sits alone in a sealed room.
At first seen on the BBC in 1966,
Eh Joe was written by the legendary
Waiting for Godot author for actor
Jack MacGowran. Acclaimed Egyptian-born film director Atom Egoyan (
The Sweet Hereafter) has adapted
Eh Joe for the stage. "On television, a single camera moved from a long shot to a close-up of
Joe's face. In the theatre, Egoyan positions a camera in the wings,
letting it slowly move onto Gambon's face, which is projected onto a
screen on the stage," according to the British theatre website.
Eh Joe will succeed Embers, starring
Jeremy Irons, at the Duke of York's. It will in turn be followed by the world premiere of
Tom Stoppard's
Rock 'n' Roll.
Gambon is acclaimed for his work in both film and theatre. Screen and TV credits include H
arry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (both as Dumbledore),
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Being Julia, "Angels in America,"
Sylvia, Gosford Park, a TV adaptation of Beckett's
Endgame, "Wives and Daughters,"
The Wings of the Dove, and many more. He later starred in
Endgame at the Duke of York's and recently played Falstaff in
The National Theatre's
Henry IV.
