Rupert Everett and Julian Wadham star in John Mortimer’s fascinating drama A Voyage Round My Father

A new production of John Mortimer’s celebrated autobiographical play, A Voyage Round My Father, opens in Bath with the cast led by star of screen and stage Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Happy Prince), Julian Wadham (The English Patient, The Singapore Grip), Eleanor David (Topsy Turvy, The Borgias) and Jack Bardoe (Belgravia, Screw). Directed by Richard Eyre, performances will take place at the Theatre Royal Bath from Thursday 28 September to Saturday 7 October, prior to a UK tour.

Growing up in the shadow of a brilliant and eccentric barrister, the son continually yearns for the love and respect of his father, whose blindness was never mentioned - a man who adored his garden and hated visitors, and whose tea-time conversation could take in music hall, adultery, evolution, Shakespeare, the ridiculous inconvenience of sex and the importance of avoiding anything heroic in wartime.

A Voyage Round My Father introduces audiences to an intriguing world of hilarious eccentrics, bumbling headteachers and exasperated relatives, whilst shining a light on the delicate relationship between a young man and his father.

Rupert Everett plays the role of Father. His many film credits include the multi award-winning My Best Friend’s Wedding, Dance with a Stranger, The Madness of King George, St Trinian’s, The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband and the voice of Prince Charming in Shrek 2 and Shrek The Third. In 2018, Rupert received critical acclaim for his role as Oscar Wilde in the film The Happy Prince, which he also wrote and directed. Since shooting to fame in Julian Mitchell’s play and subsequent 1984 film of Another Country, his many stage roles have included Henry Higgins in Pygmalion in the West End; Salieri in Amadeus at Chichester Festival Theatre; Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss in the West End - a production which played Bath in 2012, and Charles in Blithe Spirit on Broadway. In July 2019, Rupert made his directorial debut on stage with Uncle Vanya, in which he also played the role of Vanya, at the Theatre Royal Bath.

Julian Wadham plays the roles of Headmaster, Boustead, Sparks, Second Judge and Doctor. His film credits include The English Patient, The Madness of King George, Maurice, My Boy Jack, The Riot Club, Churchill, Rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince and Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. His extensive television credits include The Gold, The Singapore Grip, The Outcast, Downton Abbey, Outlander, Middlemarch and Tom Brown’s Schooldays. He has played guest roles in primetime series ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Death in Paradise and Kavanagh QC. On stage, Julian starred alongside Rupert Everett in the original West End staging of Another Country in 1983, and has since starred in many productions at London’s National Theatre, Royal Court and in the West End. At the Theatre Royal, he has starred in The Recruiting Officer and Our Country’s Good in 1989, The Madness of George III in 1992, Another Country in 2013 and In Praise of Love in 2018.

The cast also features Eleanor David (Topsy Turvy, The Borgias, Pink Floyd: The Wall) as Mother and Doris, Jack Bardoe (Belgravia, Screw, The Canterville Ghost) as Son, and Allegra Marland (The Crown) as Iris and Elizabeth. Completing the cast and playing multiple roles are John Dougall (Tommies, The War of the Roses), Heather Bleasdale (Vera, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), Richard Hodder, Calum Finlay and Zena Carswell.

The world class artistic team for A Voyage Round My Father is led by former director of the National Theatre, the multi award-winning film, television, opera and theatre director, Sir

Richard Eyre, alongside Olivier and Tony Award-winning creatives including designer Bob Crowley, co-lighting designer Hugh Vanstone and co-lighting designer Sam Waddington.

John Mortimer was a novelist, playwright and a barrister in his own right, renowned for his political dramas. He was the creator of the critically acclaimed Rumpole of the Bailey, which ran for seven series spanning three decades on television, and was also featured in short stories, novels and forty episodes performed on radio.

John Mortimer’s autobiographical play A Voyage Round My Father was first dramatised for BBC Radio in 1963 in a series of three half-hour sketches, before it was seen as a television play starring Mark Dignam, Ian Richardson and Arthur Lowe. It was adapted for the stage, appearing in the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 1971 starring Alec Guinness and Jeremy Brett. It returned to television screens in 1982 as a film, shot in Mortimer’s own house, starring Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates, Elizabeth Sellars and Jane Asher.