British actor back on the Beijing stage after 28 years

　　By He Jianwei

　　Barrie Rutter, a 61-year old British actor, will be back on the Beijing stage for the first time since 1979, Cui Yang, the general manager of Milky Way Arts and Communications Company, said Tuesday.

　　Rutter, the founder and artistic director of the Northern Broadsides Company, will bring William Shakespeare’sTempest here from June 21 to 24 at the Capital Theater. Rutter toured with the Old Vic Theater to China in 1979 and performed Hamlet in the capital and also in Shanghai.

　　“In 1979 the excitement of being part of the first English-speaking theater group to visit China since the Cutural Revolution was a very emotional and spine-tingling experience. The enthusiasm and outstanding hospitality and the great welcome we received both on and off the stage,” Rutter said.When the Old Vic Theater came in 1979, Rutter made the acquaintance of Ying Ruocheng, who was a famous actor and translator in China and later became Vice Cultural Minister before passing away in 2003.

　　“I have very fond memories of Ying Ruocheng, a manwho had never been out of China, whose English was perfect, and whose simultaneous performance of the gravedigger in Hamlet is a treasured memory due to his timing and the reaction it created from the audience,” he said.“In 1980, Ying and his family came to Britain where we met again at the British Council offices and it was great to be part of the reunion this time on British soil,” he said.The Tempest is the latest production of his theater. “In 2008 our production will beRomeo and Juliet. We hope to receive further Chinese invitations to tour, particularly as there will be a Cultural Olympics complementing the Beijing Olympic Games,” he said.e have a trip organized to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs on June 19 for our company of 19 people, none of whom besides myself have been to China before,” he said.Rutter founded Northern Broadsides in 1992 after he worked as an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Fifteen years later, the ensemble has blossomed into a multi-award-winning international touring company based in the historic Dean Clough Mill in Halifax, West Yorkshire of England. As well as touring extensively in the UK, the company has delighted audiences across the world, touring in India, Brazil, the US, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Austria and Denmark.