SIR Ian McKellen has announced a third performance in Coventry and has promised stories of the ‘old days’ when he worked at the Belgrade Theatre in his first job.
Due to popular demand, a matinee performance of his one-man show will now take place at 2.30pm on Saturday April 20 at the Belgrade.
This will precede the previously announced evening show at 7.30pm.
Tickets will go on general sale at 10.30am this morning.
Sir Ian said: “I’m celebrating my 80th birthday by touring a new solo show to theatres I know well and a few that I don’t.
“The show starts with Gandalf and will probably end with an invitation to act with me on stage.
“My first professional job was at the newly-built Belgrade Theatre, living in a company flat on Corporation Street.
“I stayed a year, on £8.50 a week. The show is anecdote as well as acting, so I’ll tell you a story or two about the old days.
“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.”
He will reveal details of his time in the city where he kick-started his professional career as a young man back in the early 1960s.
He joined the Belgrade not long after the theatre first opened in 1958.
During this time, he lived alongside other actors on-site at the theatre, in flats since converted into offices.
For tickets visit www.belgrade.co.uk, or call the box office on 024 7655 3055.
