York Theatre Royal today announces that Gary Oldman will return to the theatre where he began his career in Samuel Beckett’s seminal work, Krapp’s Last Tape. The production begins previews on 14 April, and runs until 17 May 2025.
CEO Paul Crewes said today, “When Gary visited us at the beginning of the year, it was fascinating hearing him recount stories of his time as a young man, in his first professional role on the York Theatre Royal stage. In that context when we started to explore ideas, we realised Krapp’s Last Tape was the perfect project. I am very happy that audiences will have this unique opportunity to see Gary Oldman return to our stage in this brand new production.”
With tickets from £25, Priority Booking for the YTR Director’s Circle opens on 6 November at 1pm, with YTR Members Priority Booking from 11 November at 1pm, and public booking opens on 16 November at 1pm. Become a member to access priority booking.
Each year, on his birthday, Krapp records a new tape reflecting on the year gone by.
On his 69th birthday, Krapp, now a lonely man, is ready with a bottle of wine, a banana and his tape recorder. Listening back to a recording he made as a young man, Krapp must face the hopes of his past self.
Gary Oldman returns to the stage in Beckett’s one-act masterpiece at York Theatre Royal in spring 2025.
Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989) was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. He wrote in both English and French, and his principal works for the stage also include Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting for Godot. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
Academy Award, BAFTA, SAG, BIFA and Golden Globe winner, Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal where he began his professional career in 1979. He worked in the theatre for several years, from 1985 through 1989 working extensively at the Royal Court Theatre.
With a career spanning over 30 years, winning acclaim, and every award a screen actor can win, appearing in record breaking blockbusters, playing iconic characters, Oldman is not only regarded as one of the foremost cinema greats of all time, but is one of the highest grossing actors in film history.
His many iconic screen appearances include Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour – for which he received the 2018 Academy Award as the Best Actor, the BAFTA Award as Best Actor, and also the Golden Globe, SAG Award and the Palm Desert Award, among many others; Sirius Black in the Harry Potter franchise, Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
Other acclaimed and memorable screen appearances include Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Academy Award and BAFTA nominations), Mank (Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations), Oppenheimer, The Book of Eli, Meantime, The Firm, Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, State Of Grace, JFK, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Romeo Is Bleeding, True Romance, Leon/The Professional, The Fifth Element, Immortal Beloved, and Dawn of the Planet Of The Apes, among many others.
Directors he has worked with include Stephen Frears, Oliver Stone, Frances Ford Coppola, Luc Besson, Alfonso Curon, Chris Nolan, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, and Paulo Sorrentino.
In 1995 Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski founded a production company, which produced Oldman’s screenwriting and directorial debut, the highly acclaimed Nil By Mouth, which won nine of seventeen major awards for which it was nominated. It was selected to open the main competition for the 1997 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, for which Kathy Burke won Best Actress. The same year Oldman won the prestigious Channel Four Director’s Prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival, in addition to winning the British Academy Award (shared with Douglas Urbanski) for Best Film and also the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay, which he also wrote.
Currently Oldman appears in the hugely acclaimed hit Apple TV+ series, Slow Horses, for which he has been nominated for the BAFTA, the SAG Award and a Golden Globe.
