Tickets for Sir Ian McKellen’s Lear at the Yard Theatre in east London sold out within 30 minutes of going on sale, weeks before the production opens.
The venue first opened in 2011 as a temporary, self-built warehouse in Hackney Wick, assembled from packing crates at a cost of about £9,000.
It closed in May 2025 for extensive redevelopment before a £6.7 million permanent theatre reopened on the same site in July.
The rebuilt Yard remains under founder and artistic director Jay Miller.
McKellen’s Lear forms part of the theatre’s opening-season programme.
The new play was created from Shakespeare’s tragedy and recorded conversations between McKellen and Miller.
Film actor Taylor Russell, known for Lost in Space and Escape Room, has also been announced as Cordelia, Lear’s youngest and favoured daughter.
The production’s promotional line notes that McKellen has performed King Lear 708 times, but not in this form.
Drawing on the 87-year-old actor’s life and 65-year career, the play explores endings, persistence and what remains when an activity stops.
McKellen has described how he structured his life around acting, adding that without performing, there would be little purpose in continuing.
Miller co-wrote the production with playwright Simon Stephens.
He said working with McKellen offered the chance to collaborate with one of the older generation’s finest actors as well as one of the younger generation’s most exciting performers.
He described Russell as an intuitive, sensitive and compelling stage presence.
Stephens recalled watching McKellen uncover the anger, beauty and humanity of Lear from a church hall in east London, describing the experience as one he would always value.
He said McKellen’s willingness to undertake ambitious experimentation in his eighties was particularly energising, particularly at a time when theatre often favours familiar work because of the security it provides.
He also praised McKellen’s poetic intelligence and characteristic irreverence.
Artist Antony Gormley has created a permanent sculpture for the theatre roof, while Ed Atkins has designed an installation for the main entrance.
Another project, led by Jeremy Deller with students from Gainsborough School, involves designing a studio for young artists on the first floor.
The Collections is a fund dedicated to projects beyond conventional theatre.
It backs commissions and public events around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and includes partnerships with V&A East and Sadler’s Wells East.
The programme also brings together artists whose work is not usually associated with theatre.
Gormley said he was pleased that Domain CIII would remain permanently at the new Yard Theatre, which he described as one of London’s most innovative theatre companies.
Yard executive director Ashleigh Wheeler said The Collections was conceived to mark the opening of the rebuilt theatre and demonstrate the results of cultural organisations in east London working together.
Those participants range from a nearby primary school to the organisations within East Bank, just across the canal.
Access to education is also a priority for the theatre.
Two school matinee performances of Lear are scheduled for 9 and 16 December, with tickets available free of charge.
Schools in Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest will receive priority.
Lear runs from 17 November to 2 January 2027 and forms part of a year-long programme unveiled for the opening season.
Future productions include There’s Something About Adam Black by Troy Hunter and Holly Robinson’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.