The Portrait of a Lady at the Theatre Royal

Henry James’s nineteenth century masterpiece is one of the wonders of world literature.

Set in London, Rome and Florence, it tells the story of Isabel Archer, a beautiful, young American heiress, who travels to Europe on a voyage of self-discovery. She is accompanied by the delightful Madam Merle who seems to have many friends, but no past.

Having turned down an English lord and wealthy American industrialist, Isabel marries Gilbert Osmond, a man of exquisite taste and sensibility, who claims to care nothing for worldly possessions. As Gilbert and Madam Merle reveal their true faces, however, Isabel has to confront her future alone…

An extraordinary cast includes Catherine McCormack whose numerous major films include Braveheart, The Land Girls, Dangerous Beauty, Spy Game, The Moon and the Stars and 28 Weeks Later. Her stage roles include All My Sons, for which she was nominated in the 2001 Olivier Awards, Honour and Dinner, all at the National Theatre and The 39 Steps in the West End and on Broadway.

Niamh Cusack’s work includes numerous seasons at the RSC playing such roles as Rosalind, Juliet and Desdemona, as well as acting in the West End and at the National Theatre where she played Serafina in His Dark Materials and most recently Erna Walden in The Enchantment. She comes from a theatrical family ( she and her two sisters and father famously took part in a production of Three Sisters at the Gate Theatre Dublin and subsequently at the Royal Court.) She is well known on television heading such series as Heartbeat and A+E.

Finbar Lynch’s stage roles include playing Puck in the RSC’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and most recently Pinter’s The Hothouse, a National production at the National Theatre, Edmund in King Lear and Enobarbus in Anthony and Cleopatra, also at the National Theatre. He received a Tony award nomination on Broadway for the National Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’s Not About Nightingales.

Anthony Howell is best known for his part in the BAFTA award-winning detective series Foyle’s War.
Jean Marsh won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Rose in Upstairs, Downstairs which she co-created with Eileen Atkins with whom she also created The House of Eliott.

Venue

Theatre Royal Bath, Central Bath

Dates

3 Jul 2008 - 9 Aug 2008