Theatre Royal Bath's Autumn Season to open with Robert Icke's The Doctor

The Doctor tours to the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 13 - Saturday 17 September, starring Juliet Stevenson (Mary Stuart, Truly Madly Deeply, White Heat), who reprises her leading role in Robert Icke’s five-star London production. Originally seen at the Almeida Theatre in 2019, this critically lauded new drama visits Bath immediately prior to a West End transfer.

In a divisive time, in a divided nation, a society takes sides.

The latest smash-hit by “Britain’s best director” (Telegraph) is a "provocative, wonderfully upsetting" (Independent) whirlwind of gender, race and questions about identity, "one of the peaks of the theatrical year" (Guardian) and a "devastating play for today" (Financial Times). 

The Doctor, which is very freely adapted from Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler, marks Robert Icke and Juliet Stevenson’s third collaboration together to transfer to the West End following Mary Stuart in 2018, which also played Bath, and Oresteia in 2015. After opening at London’s Almeida Theatre, The Doctor headlined the Adelaide Festival in 2020 before its West End transfer was delayed due to the pandemic.

Olivier Award-winning Juliet Stevenson’s previous work at the Almeida includes Mary Stuart, Hamlet and Duet for One, all which transferred to the West End. She has worked extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Royal Court, winning an Olivier award for her performance in Death and The Maiden in 1991. Her recent theatre credits include Blindness at the Donmar Warehouse and Wings and Happy Days at the Young Vic. Her many films include Let Me Go; Truly, Madly, Deeply; Bend it Like Beckham; When Did You Last See Your Father?; Being Julia; Pierrepoint; Departure and Mona Lisa Smile. Her numerous television credits include Riviera, One of Us, The Enfield Haunting, Atlantis, The Village, Place of Execution, The Accused, The Hour and White Heat. In addition to her Olivier Award, Juliet has been nominated a further four times and is five times BAFTA nominated for her film and television work. She was awarded the CBE in 1999. She has previously performed at Bath’s Theatre Royal in Mary Stuart in 2018, Duet for One in 2009, Private Lives in 1999 and The Duchess of Malfi in 1995.

The returning cast for the Almeida Theatre production will also feature Christopher Osikanlu Colquhoun (The Lion King); Mariah Louca (Best Of Enemies); Daniel Rabin (King Lear), who last played the Theatre Royal Bath in Mary Stuart in 2018 alongside Juliet Stevenson; Naomi Wirthner (An Evening At The Talkhouse) and Hannah Ledwidge on drums. New cast members for the 2022 production include Doña Croll (The Heresy of Love), who returns to the Theatre Royal after previous visits in Henry V in 1997, Elmina’s Kitchen in 2003 and Pride and Prejudice in 2017; Juliet Garricks (100 Paintings); Preeya Kalidas (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), who last played Bath in The Good Life in 2021; John Mackay (Oresteia); Matilda Tucker (The Snow Queen) and Sabrina Wu.

The Doctor was Robert Icke’s final production as Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre, for which he won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director. Most recently, Robert directed Animal Farm, which played the Theatre Royal Bath this March as part of a nationwide tour, and Judas at the International Theatre Amsterdam, where he is Ibsen Artist in Residence. His work at the Almeida includes adapting and directing Mary Stuart, which transferred to the West End and toured nationally including to Bath in 2018; as well as The Wild Duck; Uncle Vanya; Oresteia, which transferred to the West End and for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Director; and 1984, co-created with Duncan Macmillan, which ran on Broadway, in the West End, and toured nationally and internationally, including to the Theatre Royal Bath in 2015. Robert has won the UK Theatre Award, the Critics’ Circle Award and the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director, and is the youngest ever winner of the Olivier Award for Best Director. 

Arthur Schnitzler (1862 – 1931) was an Austrian playwright and novelist. His plays include La Ronde (reworked by David Hare as The Blue Room at the Donmar Warehouse in 1998); Anatol; Flirtation; Fair Game; Light-O-Love; Paracelsus; The Vast Domain and The Green Cockatoo.

The Doctor has designs by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Natasha Chivers and sound and composition by Tom Gibbons. 

Tickets are on sale at the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on +44 (0)1225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.