GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S acclaimed Festival Players will celebrate this Olympic and Jubilee summer with their all-male adaptation of Richard III, which arrives in Dorset this month.

David Lee-Jones in the title role is believed to be the first British-Chinese actor to take on the mantle of one of Shakespeare’s most famous villains.

The Players, in their 27th year of touring outdoor Shakespeare, recently took over London’s long-established Theatre Set-Up company, and will stage two tours this year – the all-male Richard III and a mixed cast production of Twelfth Night.

Worcestershire-based Michael Dyer, artistic director of The Festival Players, will direct both.

The former director of Cornwall’s Minack Open Air Theatre says: “In a year where the focus falls firmly on London in terms of both the Olympic and regal celebrations, what better ‘royal’ Shakespeare play to perform than Richard III, which is set largely in the capital.

“Ours will be a colourful and lively take of The Bard’s most villainous monarch.”

Shakespeare grippingly immortalised Richard III, a hunchbacked king betrayed, unhorsed and surrounded by enemies and finally calling out one of The Bard’s best known lines ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’.

Power-crazed and bitter about his physical deformity, Richard stopped at nothing and no-one in order to become king and the night before the battle had a nightmare in which the ghosts of all the people he has murdered haunt and curse him.

Michael added: “It is of course totally authentic – we are following in the footsteps of Shakespeare’s own Globe Theatre when all roles were taken by men.”

Catch Richard III in the gardens of The Mill House, Netherbury, near Bridport on June 17. The matinee performance starts at 2.30pm and advance tickets are available on 01308 488764 or from the Yarn Barton Centre at Beaminster on 01308) 862715, price £10 adults and £5 students.

A family ticket for two adults and three children under 18 is £25. Tickets on the gate will be £12 adults and £6 students. The grounds will open for picnics from 12 noon.

Another Dorset performance will take place at Shaftesbury Abbey on July 18.