Ian McDiarmid to portray MP Enoch Powell in What Shadows

Oliver Mackwood and Charles Diamond in Association with Park Theatre present The Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of What Shadows next month.

Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor, Ian McDiarmid will play MP Enoch Powell in Chris Hannan’s searing play, What Shadows. McDiarmid, internationally renowned for his role as Palpatine in George Lucas’ Star Wars films, has also several other major movie credits including Sleepy Hollow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Gorky Park and Dragonslayer. His recent theatre credits include the title role in A Life of Galileo for the RSC, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Almeida and the father in Rupert Goold’s Six Characters in Search of an Author for Chichester Festival Theatre.

Directed by Roxana Silbert, the Artistic Director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the production tells the story of Powell’s explosive Rivers of Blood speech, bringing to life the community that inspired it and, 30 years later, its effects on a woman trying to make sense of her life.

“I was a storm. I was also a man entirely alone in a storm. There were forces beyond my control and I was one of them.”

Oxford academic and daughter of a Caribbean immigrant, Rose Cruickshank wants answers. Enoch’s controversial words about immigration shattered her childhood. Rose cannot find inner peace until she understands what led him to make the speech that defined a generation. Will a meeting with the man himself give her the answers she desperately craves?

“As we near the 50^th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s explosive ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, the nation finds itself again facing profound and difficult questions about national identity and attitudes to immigration. Chris’s powerful play is a scorching interrogation of prejudices and how a bitterly divided country moves forward in the wake of a crisis. It couldn’t be more necessary.” – Director Roxana Silbert

Other cast includes Nicholas Le Prevost as Clem Jones, Amelia Donkor as Rose Cruickshank & Joyce Cruickshank, Paula Wilcox as Grace Hughes & Marjorie Jones, Waleed Akhtar as Saeed, Ameet Chana as Sultan & Doctor Sharma and Joanne Pearce as Sofia & Pamela.

What Shadows runs from the 27th of September 2017 through to October 28th at the Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP.

www.parktheatre.co.uk  | Box office: 020 7870 6876