Robert Lindsay as Sebastian - In Praise of Love (2018)
Next Stage Theatre Company, which created and runs The Mission Theatre, is about to celebrate its 25th birthday in May 2019 and is delighted to announce that Robert Lindsay has agreed to become its Silver Anniversary Patron joining the company’s other Patrons: Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Sir David Hare and Dame Harriet Walter.
Bath-based audiences have just had the chance to see Robert Lindsay in a critically-acclaimed performance as Sebastian in Jonathan Church’s brilliant production of Terence Rattigan’s In Praise of Love. Anyone lucky enough to have seen the play in the last month will know how thrilled the Next Stage Theatre Company are to have won the patronage of such a luminary of stage and screen.
Robert Lindsay has been delighting his public since graduating from RADA in the early 70’s. He has been seen in TV comedies, Hollywood films and West-End and Broadway shows with seasons at the RSC and The National Theatre. A versatile and charismatic actor, Robert is perhaps best known for such memorable shows as Citizen Smith and GBH on television, Richard III for the RSC, Me and my Girl (London and New York), The Entertainer, Onassis and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on stage.
Next Stage’s Artistic Director, Ann Ellison BEM has followed and admired Robert’s work since the 1970’s and in particular was inspired by him and Derek Jacobi when they appeared in Bath in Becket in 1991. When she knew Robert was coming to Bath with In Praise of Love, a play that Next Stage had produced in December 2016, Ann approached Robert to become the company’s Patron in its 25th year.
On Monday November 12th, Robert Lindsay emailed as follows:
“Ann Ellison asked me if I would give my patronage to Next Stage Theatre Company as it approaches it's 25th birthday. I was impressed at the volume of work that the company had achieved in the last 25 years - nearly 200 productions - and struck by the range and ambition of many of the plays. The fact that Next Stage obtained and converted a small 200 year old Chapel 15 years ago and turned it into The Mission Theatre - a thriving community theatre - also struck a chord. In this day and age, the struggle for any arts organisation to survive and prosper is a challenge and if my patronage can help in some small way I should be delighted. By endorsing Next Stage's work with both its adult and youth theatre companies I hope they can look forward to continued success in the next 25 years!"