The centrepiece of the Unity Theatre’s autumn programme is the welcome return of Told By An Idiot with the acclaimed play, My Perfect Mind. This dark comedy features Olivier award-winning actor Edward Petherbridge, one of the U.K.’s most distinguished stage actors who performed in Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company and played Guildenstern in the world premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Undoubtedly an unmissable show!
Brimming with Told by an Idiot’s inventive style, My Perfect Mind is a moving and comic exploration of the resilience of the human spirit. Performed by Edward Petherbridge and Paul Hunter in a production directed by Kathryn Hunter, the show blurs events from a life-changing chapter in Edward’s life and moments from King Lear.
Acclaimed classical actor Edward Petherbridge was rehearsing for the role of King Lear when a major stroke left him barely able to move. In the space of 24 hours, he had gone from knowing one of the greatest parts in Western drama, to not even being able to move his thumb and index finger together. As he struggled to recover, he made a startling discovery: the entire role of Lear still existed word for word in his mind.
In My Perfect Mind, Edward reflects on the remarkable coincidences that struck him between that period of his life and the story of one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters as Paul Hunter plays everyone from his hospital consultant to Lear’s fool.
Edward Petherbridge has had a distinguished career spanning over fifty years on both stage and screen. He began his tenure as part of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company in the 1960s, in which he created the iconic role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Major stage work includes Cymbeline, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Nicholas Nickleby and Twelfth Night for the R..S.C. He played Gaev in The Cherry Orchard, the Cardinal in The Duchess of Malfi and scooped an Olivier Award for his role as Charlie Marsden in Strange Interlude, all for the McKellen-Petherbridge Company at the NT.
Television audiences will recall his definitive performance as Lord Peter Wimsey in the Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries, along with appearances in Journey’s End, Maigret and A Christmas Carol.
Paul Hunter is co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot with Hayley Carmichael and has been involved in all of their work to date as Director/Devisor/Performer, including: You Can’t Take It With You (Royal Exchange Manchester), And The Horse You Rode In On (Drum Theatre/Plymouth/Barbican/Brighton Festival), The Comedy of Errors (RSC), Six Seeds (National Theatre).
Acting credits include: Much Ado About Nothing, The Mysteries, Troilus And Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Globe), Rapunzel and The Red Shoes (Kneehigh).
Film/television credits include: Pirates of the Caribbean (On Stranger Tides), Snow White and the Huntsman, Black Books.
Tickets for My Perfect Mind are priced between £8 and £14. Tickets are available from the Unity Theatre Box office on Hope Place, by telephone on 0844 873 2888 or online at www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk
For a review of the play’s previous Unity performance go to http://www.liverpoolsoundandvision.co.uk/2013/03/06/my-perfect.