A BRAND-NEW and critically acclaimed production of the hit West End play, Shakespeare in Love, heads into the county later this month as part of a UK wide autumn tour.

Shakespeare in Love, directed by Phillip Breen, opens at Malvern’s Festival Theatres on Monday, October 22 through to Saturday, October 29.

The main cast will see Pierro Niel-Mee starring as Will Shakespeare with Imogen Daines as Viola, Rob Edwards as Fennyman, Geraldine Alexander as the Queen, Edmund Kingsley as Kit Marlowe, Bill Ward (Coronation Street, Emmerdale) as Wessex, Ian Hughes as Henslowe, Giles Taylor as Tilney and De Lesseps, Edward Harrison as Burbage and Phillip Labey as Sam.

The cast also includes Rowan Polonski as Ned Alleyn/Catling, Kevin N Golding as Lambert/Wabash, Joshua Richards as Frees/Ralph, Jonathan Blaydon as Nol/Valentine, Richard Rowe McGhie as Adam, Rosalind Steele as Molly, Toby Webster as Peter/Robin and Jazmine Wilkinson as Webster/Mistress Quickly.

The Oscar-winning film of the same title, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard and starring Judi Dench, Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow, went on to win seven Academy Awards, including best screenplay, following its premiere in 1998.

It was adapted for stage by Lee Hall, with music by Paddy Cunneen, and opened for a triumphant West End run in 2014 to both critical and public acclaim.

Young Will Shakespeare has writer’s block… the deadline for his new play – a comedy called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter – is fast approaching, he’s struggling to finish the first line of a sonnet and he’s in dire need of inspiration.

Then he meets the beguiling Viola de Lesseps, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant. Viola is prepared to do anything – including risking the frosty disapproval of Queen Elizabeth I – to fulfil her illicit dream of performing on the London stage and pursuing a passionate affair with the greatest playwright of the age.

Tickets are on sale at the Box Office 01684 892277 and on-line at malvern-theatres.co.uk.