Stephen Fry will lead a cast of well-known faces in a one-off charity performance of an alternative nativity by Patrick Barlow on 5 December.
Star Child, which is being staged at the Almeida theatre in aid of The Art Room, will see Fry playing the role of God in a cast that also includes Stephen Mangan, Natascha McElhone, Juliet Stevenson, Henry Goodman, Catherine Tate, Olivia Williams, Bill Paterson, Maggie Steed and the Marquez brothers.
Barlow, whose comic persona Desmond Dingle is the Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Brent, is the author of the stage adaptation of The 39 Steps, which won a Laurence Olivier Award in 2007 and has been playing at the Criterion theatre for four years.
With Star Child, Barlow upends the traditional Christmas story to create a tale for our times featuring a less-than-maternal Mary, an over-excited midwife, a talking donkey, three wise women and a shepherd with an angel obsession. Not to mention a disgruntled God who wakes in the nick of time to see the Earth facing disaster and a Herod who wages war on the world’s children.
Actor, writer, presenter, comic and intellectual Fry can currently be seen presenting the latest series of QI. His recent ventures into theatre include writing the Old Vic’s pantomime Cinderella in 2007.
Goodman and Stevenson return to the Almeida theatre after appearing there together last year in Duet For One. Tate and Mangan have both been seen on the West End stage of last: Tate, also well known for The Catherine Tate Show and Doctor Who, appeared in Under The Blue Sky at the Duke of York’s theatre and will soon be seen in Season’s Greetings at the National Theatre; Mangan took the title role in the Old Vic’s award-winning revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests. Steed (Jam & Jerusalem), McElhone (Californication) and Williams (An Education) are well known for their screen work, while comic actors the Marquez brothers work together on shows including The Dark Side Of Buffoon.
The Art Room is a charity which offers art as therapy to young people aged 5-16 who may be at risk of exclusion from school.
Tickets for Star Child cost £75 and are available from the Almeida theatre box office.
CB