Factory Birds
The Fair Maid of the West
The Family Reunion
Lynn Farleigh
George Farquhar
David Farr
Farrah
Nicholas Farrell
Mia Farrow
Fashion
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Faust
Ray Fearon
Michael Feast
Jules Feiffer
Emma Fielding
Joseph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Peter Flannery
James Fleet
Susan Fleetwood
John Fletcher
Flight
The Fool
Footfalls
John Ford
Oliver Ford Davies
The Forest
Emilia Fox
Philip Franks
Paul Freeman
Geoffrey Freshwater
Max Frisch
Frozen Assets
Christopher Fry
Athol Fugard
The young Michael Feast played Woof in the London production of Hair (Tom O'Horgan, Shaftesbury, 1968) and looked destined for a career in the musical theatre. But he was too good and too charismatic an actor. At the National Peter Hall cast him as an androgynous, flying Ariel to Gielgud's Prospero in The Tempest (Old Vic, 1974), and as the enigmatic Foster in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land (Old Vic, 1975, Lyttelton, 1976). Also on the South Bank he was Raymond in John Osborne's Watch It Come Down (Bill Bryden, Lyttelton, 1976); Bobby in David Mamet's American Buffalo (Bryden, Cottesloe, 1978); and Mayhew in Dispatches (Bryden, Cottesloe, 1979).
His other stage appearances in the 1970s and 80s included, at the Manchester Royal Exchange, Nicholas in What the Butler Saw (Braham Murray, 1976), Henry in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth (Richard Negri/James Maxwell, 1977), Telegin in Uncle Vanya (Michael Elliott, 1977), Roland in Present Laughter (Maxwell, 1977), Billy Bigelow in Carousel (Steven Pimlott, 1984), and Subtle in The Alchemist (Gregory Hersov, 1987); at the Royal Court, Joe Conran in Ann Devlin's Ourselves Alone (1985), the Card Player in Mamet's Prairie du Chien (1986), and John in Mamet's The Shawl (1986); and at the Almeida, Verkhovensky in Dostoevsky's The Possessed (Yuri Lyubimov, 1985).
At the RSC in the 1990s he played Becket in Murder in the Cathedral (Steven Pimlott, Swan, 1993, Pit, 1994), the Duke in Measure for Measure (Pimlott, RST, 1994, Barbican, 1995) and the title role in Faust (Michael Bogdanov, Swan, 1995, Pit, 1996)—gaunt and fanatical, three variations on a theme. Since leaving the Company he has played Ian/Fitzroy in Timberlake Wertenbaker's After Darwin (Hampstead Theatre, 1998); Neschastlivtsev in The Forest (Anthony Page, NT Lyttelton, 1999); the title role in The Servant (Neil Bartlett, Lyric Hammersmith, 2001); four parts for Steven Pimlott at Chichester 2003/04—Dorn in The Seagull, Nathan in Nathan the Wise, the Devil in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Mephistopheles in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus; and Chichester 2007—a manic if musically melancholy Feste in Twelfth Night (Philip Franks).
Among his films are Start Counting (1969); Private Road (1971); Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Franco Zeffirelli, 1972); Hardcore (1977); The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982); Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes, 1998); Prometheus (Tony Harrison, 1998); Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999); Young Blades (2001); and Long Time Dead (2002). Television credits: A Caribbean Mystery (1989); Clarissa (BBC, 1991); Boon (ITV, 1991); Resnick (BBC, 1992); Touching Evil (ITV, 1997-99); The Tribe (Stephen Poliakoff, BBC, 1998); The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (Paul Greengrass, ITV, 1999); Fields of Gold (Bill Anderson, BBC, 2002); Ultimate Force (ITV, 2002); the spin doctor in Paul Abbott's State of Play (David Yates, BBC, 2003); Boudica (Bill Anderson, ITV, 2003); and Christopher Wren in London (BBC, 2004).
Education: Central School of Speech and Drama
RSC: Joined 1993
Seasons: 1993 (Strat.)-94 (Lond.); 1994 (Strat.)-95 (Lond.); 1995 (Strat.)-96 (Lond.)
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