Internationally-acclaimed openly gay actor Ian McKellen will revisit New Zealand in August – this time to appear on stage in Auckland. McKellen will travel with The Royal Shakespeare Company to play the title role in Shakespeare's King Lear and will also feature in a production of Chekhov's The Seagull. The 18-26th August shows at Aotea Centre will be part of a season of internationally recognised performing arts running from August to December 2007. McKellen says he's looking forward to returning to New Zealand. “I made few requests in planning the tour, but one was that the RSC should return to the welcome of New Zealand, where I spent one of my happiest and most fulfilling years as an actor filming Lord of the Rings.” Although McKellen has appeared in two previous productions of King Lear, he has never been in the title role. “To play King Lear is the greatest of acting challenges. I am fortunate to be with such talented old and new colleagues who relish the play as much as I do. Bringing our production, along with The Seagull, to Auckland will only add to the excitement of being back with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the job of a lifetime,” he says. The actor says he's never hid his sexuality from his fellow actors even early on in his long career, but it was not until 1988 that he first spoke about his homosexuality. Since then he's been a prominent campaigner on LGBT issues. In 2002 he attended the Academy Awards with his then-boyfriend, a New Zealander. Tony Reed of Wellington gay networking group GAP says McKellen's new production has received rave reviews in England, “although his decision to take the text literally at one point and strip completely naked caused some surprise. “I think this play will have proved worth the wait - not only Sir Ian on stage here at last, but in one the greatest Shakespearian roles,” says Reed. Tickets for The Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of King Lear and The Seagull will be on sale through Ticketek from Friday 20th April. Ref: GAP, The Edge (m)