Sir Ian McKellen takes to Perthshire

We're feeling a little bit star-struck in the Small City office! Just last week it was announced that Pixie Lott would be taking to the streets of Perth for the Christmas lights-switch on this year, joining big names James Arthur and Stephen Mulhern. 

Now, we're excited to say Golden Globe winning Sir Ian McKellen will also be taking to wider Perthshire, bringing his solo theatre show to Pitlochry Festival Theatre next August 2019. It seems like Perth is the hot place to be!

Ian McKellen is a world-renowned actor famous for many roles. In Shakespeare he has triumphed as Richard II, Macbeth (with Judi Dench), Coriolanus, Iago, Richard III (also on film) and most recently as King Lear.

He also starred as Magneto in the X-Men films and Gandalf in Tolkien’s Middle Earth films. He won his first Oscar nomination as Best Actor, as the gay film director James Whale, in Bill Condon's 1998 classic “Gods and Monsters”. Since he has starred in The Da Vinci Code”, “Mr Holmes”, “Beauty and the Beast”, with “CATS” yet to come. 

I’m delighted to be at last making my debut at the Festival Theatre. All profits will support young people to attend and take part in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s wide range of programming. - Sir Ian McKellen

His show is in celebration of his 80th birthday next year, thus he will be visiting 80 theatres as a means to both entertain and give back to the theatre community, raising funds for theatres across the U.K. 

In 1991, Sir Ian was knighted for services to theatre in UK. Outwith acting he is a prolific LGBT rights activist, and is co-founder of Stonewall UK, one of the most prominent U.K. charities which lobby for legal and social equality for LGBT people.

Details of the tour will be officially be announced on the Graham Norton Show tonight, the 9th of November 2018, but we can be assured that the shows on his tour will include a lot of Tolkien, a lot of Shakespeare, and that many of his much loved characters will be making appearances.

The shows will be structured with a mixture of anecdotes and acting. Plus, some lucky members of the audience will be invited to act with the man himself on stage...any aspiring actor, or Lord of the Rings fan's dream!

It all begins in January 2019 with a Tour of London from the National Theatre to the Theatre Royal Stratford East, then, across the country, he will visit theatres large and small with which he has personal connections, including amateur groups he knew as a child and notable playhouses he has played in as a professional actor over the last half-century.

“Live theatre has always been thrilling to me, as an actor and in the audience.

"Growing up in Lancashire, I was grateful to those companies who toured beyond London and I’ve always enjoyed repaying that debt by touring up and down the country myself, with the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Prospect Theatre, the Actors’ Company, as well as with commercial productions.

"Sean Mathias, the director and I have worked together for stage and screen, many happy times."

Ian also expressed very fond wishes for the people of Perthshire.

"Many of my friends have told me of their happy times working in Pitlochry, so I’m delighted to be at last making my debut at the Festival Theatre. All profits will support young people to attend and take part in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s wide range of programming. See you there, I hope!”

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Tickets are now on sale for 'Ian McKellen on Stage', for 11 August, 2019 at 8pm. To make sure you get yours, call the Box Office team on 01796 484626, or go to PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com to book online.