Ralph Fiennes to star in and direct show at Southampton MAST Mayflower Studios

ACCLAIMED actor Ralph Fiennes is set to appear on stage at Southampton’s new cultural hub.

MAST Mayflower Studios, at Above Bar Street, has announced highlights of its inaugural season of shows in its largest performance space, Studio 1.

In July Ralph Fiennes will direct and star in six performances of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Described as compelling, moving and symphonic, the work delivers four interwoven meditations on the nature of time, faith, and the quest for spiritual enlightenment.

Mostly written during World War 2, the four parts (Burnt Norton, East Coker, the Dry Salvages and Little Gidding) are considered a key achievement in Eliot’s Nobel Prize winning literary career.

The MAST season will open on 28th May with a double bill by Rambert2, one of the world’s most adventurous dance companies, to a socially distanced audience.

Early June brings the tour of War of the Worlds. Inspired by H.G. Wells’ sci-fi novel and Orson Welles’ classic radio play, this legendary science fiction thriller is re-imagined for contemporary audiences by the award-winning theatre company Rhum and Clay.

The most outrageous live science show, Brainiac, with exploding dustbins, combusting microwaves, live daredevil stunts and all the experiments you‘re not allowed to do at home will be on stage in August.

The fun continues in November with a world premiere of a musical adaptation of the book Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World, featuring fascinating facts about some of the most amazing women who changed the world.

The year will be rounded off with MAST Mayflower Studios’ own production of Peter Pan, An Awfully Big Musical Adventure which will be performed by a cast of local young people in December.

Further productions are set to be announced later this month. Visit www.mayflowerstudios.org.uk