Simon Callow: My new testament

Simon Callow is on a nine-week run of one-night stands with his one-man play. He talks to Colette Sheridan

RENOWNED for his one-man shows on William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, British actor, director and writer, Simon Callow, is bringing his acclaimed solo show, The Man Jesus to Cork’s Everyman Theatre as part of an extensive tour. The play, written by Matthew Hurt and produced by Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, looks at important events in the life of Jesus through the eyes of the people who knew him.

Callow, an accomplished stage actor, is probably best known for playing Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral. He was one of the first actors to publicly come out as gay in his 1984 book, Being an Actor. For Callow, this was one of “the more valuable things” he did in his life. “It was a pretty risky thing to do. A lot of people said I wouldn’t work again.”