The highly acclaimed Donmar Warehouse has embarked on its first ever tour. The Liverpool Everyman has been chosen as one of three venues outside of London to play host to Tom Stoppard's new version of Pirandello's Henry IV.

Ian McDiarmid and Francesca Annis.

The star-studded cast includes Ian McDiarmid (Sleepy Hollow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Star Wars) as Henry IV, Francesca Annis (Copenhagen, Wives and Daughters) as Matilda, and James Lance (Absolute Power, Teachers, Rescue Me) as Landolf

The story tells of an Italian nobleman who falls from his horse during a pageant. When he comes round, he believes he is the Medieval German Emperor, King Henry IV. For twenty years he lives this illusion until a plot is hatched to shock him out of his madness and into the twenty-first century.

James Lance.

The major themes of Pirandello's work are all present: the absurdity of human existence and the uneasy relationship between sanity and madness. Whilst Tom Stoppard is regarded as one of the world's greatest living playwrights. His plays include the 'Cost Of Utopia' trilogy, 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' and he won the Academy Award for his screenplay for 'Shakespeare in Love'.

The Everyman's artistic director Gemma Bodinetz says: "The Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse theatres are delighted at this, the inauguration of their relationship with the Donmar theatre.It is hoped that this will be the beginning of many more creative exchanges with the Donmar, bringing the best of our national theatre to Merseyside with the future expectation that the best of Liverpool will travel to London."

Everyman Info:

Henry IV, Everyman Theatre.
13th-17th July at 7.45pm.
Matinees: 14th July, 1.30pm & 17th July, 2pm.
Box Office: 0151 709 4776.