EVENING STANDARD, December 14, 1999 
            Ralph prepares for his double gladiator battle 
            Robin Stringer 
            
              
PAYING their first visit to the old Gainsborough Studios in Shoreditch, where they will soon confront each other in Richard II 
and Coriolanus, are two of Britain's finest young actors, Ralph 
Fiennes and Linus Roache, writes Robin Stringer. 
They are the protagonists in the Almeida Theatre's most ambitious 
undertaking to date.It will cost more than £1 million and involves the transformation of the old film studio into a 750-seat auditorium. 
"It is a place full of extraordinary resonances," says director 
Jonathan Kent, who four years ago took Fiennes' Hamlet to Hackney 
Empire with such success that it transferred to Broadway. 
"The studios are where Alfred Hitchcock directed and James Mason acted, and the two theatres where Shakespeare began to act and write 
more than 400 years ago were just down the road. 
"Then there is the excitement of creating within them a new space 
dedicated to these two plays." At the heart of both works are 
gladiatorial confrontations, on the one hand between Richard and the 
usurping Bolingbroke and on the other between Coriolanus and his 
enemy-turned-ally Tullus Aufidius. 
"Both plays are about men in the shadow of another," continues Kent, "which is why it is so important to have a balanced cast." 
            
Hence his delight at having secured Roache, Helena Bonham Carter's 
lover in The Wings Of The Dove, to play opposite Fiennes as well as 
a very strong cast for both plays that includes Oliver Ford Davies, 
Barbara Jefford and David Burke. 
            
Work on the project will start in earnest in February and lead to 
the opening of Richard II in April and Coriolanus in June. Both 
plays will then play in repertory until 22 July. 
The performances will mark the end of the old Gainsborough Studios. They are due to be knocked down immediately afterwards for redevelopment. 
            
            
(Thanks to Antonieta, who sent me this article. Mari)