George Irving theatre listing

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theatre appearances

George Irving was a founder member of the South Shields Youth theatre in 1966, and a director from 1968 - 69.

He worked at the National Youth Theatre from 1966 - 73, and attended Birmingham University Drama department , graduating in July 1973, with B.A.Hons in Drama.

He has appeared in repertory in Newcastle, Exeter, Birmingham and Leicester, and a season at the Open Space.

year	play	role	author	venue	other cast members		review
	Endgame	Hamm	Beckett
	The Way of the World	Mr. Fainall	Congreve	Birmingham	Fidelis Morgan
	Henry V	French King	Shakespeare	National Youth Theatre
	Julius Caesar	Caesar	Shakespeare	National Youth Theatre
	Zigger Zagger	Les	Terson	National Youth Theatre
	A Midsummer's Night's Dream	Bottom	Shakespeare	National Youth Theatre
	Geordie's March	George	Terson	National Youth Theatre (Shaw theatre)	Tony Conaboy
	In camera		Sartre	Birmingham	Fidelis Morgan
1970	Macbeth	Macbeth	Shakespeare	National Youth Theatre, Sunderland Empire		George was also assistant director.
1972	Measure for Measure	Pompey	Shakespeare	National Youth Theatre, Shaw Theatre	Francis Matthews, Dominic Jephcott
1974	Byker Byker		Phil Woods	University Theatre Newcastle	Fred Pearson
1974	Rock Nativity	John, 2nd shepherd	Wood	University Theatre Newcastle	Frances Tomelty Sting's band, Last Exit, supplied the music.		“… inspired moments of rejoicing.” Newcastle Journal
1974	Cyrano de Bergerac		Rostand	University Theatre Newcastle
1975	Equus	Horse	Shaffer	University Theatre Newcastle	Dicken Ashworth
1975	The Devils	Father Urbain Grandier	Whiting	University Theatre Newcastle	Bruce Alexander
	Artaud at Roudez	Louis Jouvet	Marowitz	Open Space Theatre and Rome
1977	Othello	Iago	Shakespeare	Northcott Theatre Exeter, and tour	Geraldine James		'Iago, played by George Irving, is pure 20th century treachery. As cunning and plausible as today's con man, he offers a friendly word in the ear while slipping the knife of doubt neatly between the shoulder blades.'
	The Professional	Teya	Dusan Kovacevic	Offstage theatre
1979	Hearing	Dan	Page	Birmingham rep
1980	Hedda Gabler	Lorborg	Ibsen	Haymarket Theatre Leicester
	The Bedbug	Ivan Prisypkin	Mayakovsky	Gate Theatre	Fiona Gaunt
1980	If Winter Comes	Oswath		Bush theatre Leicester Haymarket
	Mrs Vershinin	Alexander Vershinin	Cooper	Glasgow and Hamburg
1980	Commitments	Will	Hughes	Bush theatre and BBC television broadcast.	Alan Rickman
1982	The Miss Firecracker Contest	Mac Sam	Henley	Bush theatre
1982	Destry rides again	Kent	Gershe	Donmar warehouse	Jill Gascoine, Alfred Molina
1983	Shona	Harry	Craze	Soho Poly
1985	The Woolgatherer	Cliff	Mastrosimone	Lyric Studio Hammersmith	Kate Lock
1985	Rumblings	Neil Gater	Gibbs	Bush Theatre	Belinda Lang		...an abundance of expert close-contact comic acting
1986	Twelfth Night	Orsino	Shakespeare	Leicester Haymarket	Sylvester McCoy
1986	The Miss Firecracker Contest	Mac Sam	Henley	Greenwich Theatre	Gayle Hunnicutt Sandra Dickinson
1988	A Tale of Two Cities	Dr Manette Marquis de St Evremande	Dickens/Mitchell	Theatre Royal, Bath	Philip Middlemiss
1989	Poor Beast in the rain	Danger Doyle	Roche	Bush theatre and BBC radio broadcast.	Catherine Cusack		Any trivial reservations about Poor Beast (its archetypal dramatic curve, climaxing in a drunken exchange of home truths, smacks of the "difficult second play" syndrome) evaporate in the context of the trilogy as a whole, which is simply the fringe theatre event of the year and then some.
1989	On the verge	Alphonse, Grover, The Gorge Troll, The Yeti, Gus, Madame Nhu, Mr Coffee, Nicky Paradise	Overmyer	Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadlers Wells	Paola Dionisotti , Juliet Stevenson.		...joined by the extraordinarily versatile George Irving, playing a variety of roles from the Yeti to a 50s dreamboat.
1991	The Second Mrs Tanqueray	Aubrey Tanqueray	Pinero	Salisbury Playhouse	Michael Sheldon, Daniel Tobias.		'George Irving's slightly deadpan delivery sounds dull at first, but then becomes an integral part of the character of Tanqueray, making all the more moving his final anguished breakdown'
1991	The Winters Tale	Leontes Old shepherd	Shakespeare	Salisbury Playhouse	Richard Howard
1992	White woman street	Blakely	Barry	Bush theatre and Abbey theatre	David Yip
1992	Walpurgis night	Prokorov	Erofeyev	Gate theatre	Nicholas Farrell		"Dalia Ibelhauptaite deploys a high calibre cast to present a stark, gripping production, pack with harrowing truths and fierce intelligence.... the production is flawless." CRITIC'S CHOICE - "Time Out"
1994	Hamlet	Claudius	Shakespeare	Old Rep Birmingham	Russell Boulter, Celia Montague
1996	The Last Yankee	Leroy Hamilton	Miller	Colchester Mercury	Cheryl Campbell, Peter Laird, Heather Canning		'a splendid production,' (The Times) 'George Irving is much more reticent.. he is imbued with a terse defensiveness... often making crucial points with his eyes glancing off to eight o'clock of his interlocutor's face. '
1996	Hamlet	Claudius	Shakespeare	Greenwich Theatre	Michael Maloney, Dinah Stabb		'George Irving's quiet, reptilian Claudius seems unrelaxed at first, but soon gains authority: his account of the king at bay is harrowing.' Sunday Times
2006	The French Lieutenant's Woman	The Writer	John Fowles, adapted by Mark Healy	Yvonne Arnaud theatre and tour	Anthony Howell, Katy Odey		'an actor as smooth and strong as a well-aged single malt whisky, dominates the stage and effortlessly moves from role to role with total command' George Irving has such stage presence that, had he been centre stage more often, he would have detracted attention away from the rest of the impressive cast who were doing their best to tell his tale. Read more here
2007	Shining City	John	Conor McPherson	Octagon, Bolton	Paul McCleary		'But the key to the success of this production is an extraordinary performance from George Irving as John, who seeks counselling about the ghostly visitations of his dead wife. His spell-binding confession of his personal experiences leads the audience through his own despair and repair. It is a charismatic performance.' Read an interview here and reviews here , here, here, here, and here
2008	The Dying of Today	The Barber	Howard Barker	Arcola Theatre	Duncan Bell		George Irving as the barber is also outstanding - he has authority, pathos, such a powerful face and looks every inch the tragic Greek. Read reviews here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Thanks to Peps, Barbara and Claire, and many of the theatres listed here, for their help.