The Dresser by Ronald Harwood at Birmingham Festival Theatre

The Dresser is a highly anticipated revival of one the first shows produced at BFT and a long-time favorite. Based on the author's own experiences as dresser to Sir Donald Wolfit, this bracing, heartbreaking story is an elegy to a by-gone era. Backstage at a theatre in the English provinces during WWII, Sir, the last of the great breed of English actor/managers, is in a bad way tonight, as his dresser Norman tries valiantly to prepare him to go on stage as King Lear. Unsure of his lines as well as whom and where he is supposed to be, Sir is adamantly determined to roar his last. Directed by Bethe Ensey and starred by Judd McCluney, Beth Kitchin, Katherine Love, Penny Thomas, Jack Cannon, Mitchell Nash, and Bob Penny.