Mark Gatiss and Eleanor Bron have joined the cast of All About My Mother at the Old Vic, which opens on 4 September (previews from 24 August).
Actor and novelist Gatiss, who is best known for being one third of The League Of Gentlemen, plays transsexual Agrado. In addition to the popular television series, Gatiss’s small screen credits include Dr Who and the forthcoming Sense And Sensibility, while on film he appeared in The League Of Gentleman’s Apocalypse, Match Point, Shaun Of The Dead and Bright Young Things. In the theatre he starred alongside Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith in the comedy three-hander Art at Trafalgar Studios (then the Whitehall), and in the stage adaptation of The League Of Gentlemen at the Drury Lane, both in 2001.
Bron, who plays Sister Rosa’s mother, has extensive London theatre credits including The Miser, The White Devil, The Cherry Orchard, The Real Inspector Hound and The Duchess Of Malfi at the National, Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse, and In Extremis at Shakespeare’s Globe. Among Bron’s many film credits are Help! alongside The Beatles, the original 1966 Alfie, Black Beauty and more recently Iris and Wimbledon.
In All About My Mother, Gatiss and Bron join a cast which already includes Diana Rigg, Joanne Froggatt, Lesley Manville, Colin Morgan and Charlotte Randle.
This is the premiere production of Samuel Adamson’s new stage adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar’s Oscar and BAFTA-winning film. It tells of Manuela (Manville), who, following the death of her beloved teenage son Esteban, goes to Barcelona to find the father he never knew. But before she can exorcise her guilt, she gets caught up in the lives of three women: Agrado, a long lost transsexual friend, Sister Rosa (Froggatt), a young nun in search of love, and Huma Rojo (Rigg), the famous actress her son so admired. Just as Manuela’s life begins to have meaning again, Esteban’s father returns and her journey of discovery and forgiveness comes full circle.
All About My Mother is booking at the Old Vic until 24 November.
CB