Timothy Dalton will take to the stage again in `His Dark Materials` from December 2003

06-Sep-2003 • Actor News

Whatsonstage.com have reported that two-times James Bond Timothy Dalton will make a rare stage appearance later this year to star in the National`s much-anticipated stage adaptation of Philip Pullman`s award-winning children`s book trilogy His Dark Materials. Other cast members newly confirmed today for the 30-strong cast of the two-part epic include Patricia Hodge and Niamh Cusack.

Based on Pullman`s award-winning trilogy of children`s fantasy novels, the stage version of His Dark Materials is adapted by Nicholas Wright and directed by NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner. It will receive its world premiere at the NT Olivier on 20 December 2003, following previews from 4th December.

The Welsh-born Dalton, who plays the evil Lord Asriel, is a classical stage veteran, having appeared with the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Prunella Scales in numerous 1970s and 80s productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Timothy West`s Prospect Theatre, including Love`s Labour`s Lost, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Taming of the Shrew and Henry IV, Parts I & II.

In 1987, he became internationally famous as James Bond, starring in two of 007 thrillers, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. Dalton`s last major London stage outing was 15 years ago in the 1988 production of Eugene O`Neill`s A Touch of the Poet which transferred from the Young Vic to the West End.

According to NT promotional material, the theatrical version "will be an epic production both in its narrative scope and its staging, involving artists from new technologies as well as old, and aims to create an experience as meaningful for 12-year-olds as for adults." It`s designed by Giles Cadle with costumes by Jon Morrell, puppets by Michael Curry, lighting by Paule Constable, choreography by Aletta Collins, music by Jonathan Dove, fights by Terry King and sound by Paul Groothuis.

Click here for the official National Theatre production page.

Thanks to Rumpole for the alert.