Brimming with Told by an Idiot’s inventive style, My Perfect Mind is a moving and comic exploration of the resilience of the human spirit. Performed by Edward Petherbridge and Paul Hunter in a production directed by Kathryn Hunter, the show blurs events from a life-changing chapter in Edward’s life and moments from King Lear.

Acclaimed classical actor Edward Petherbridge was rehearsing for the role of King Lear when a major stroke left him barely able to move. In the space of 24 hours, he had gone from knowing one of the greatest parts in Western drama, to not even being able to move his thumb and index finger together. As he struggled to recover, he made a startling discovery: the entire role of Lear still existed word for word in his mind. In My Perfect Mind, Edward reflects on the remarkable coincidences that struck him between that period of his life and the story of one of Shakespeare’s most complex characters as Paul Hunter plays everyone from his hospital consultant to Lear’s fool.

Edward Petherbridge has had a distinguished career spanning over fifty years on both stage and screen. He began his tenure as part of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company in the 1960s, in which he created the iconic role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Major stage work includes Cymbeline, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Nicholas Nickleby and Twelfth Night for the RSC. He played Gaev in The Cherry Orchard, the Cardinal in The Duchess of Malfi and scooped an Olivier Award for his role as Charlie Marsden in Strange Interlude, all for the McKellen-Petherbridge Company at the NT. TV audiences will recall his definitive performance as Lord Peter Wimsey in the Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries, along with appearances in Journey’s End, Maigret and A Christmas Carol.

Paul Hunter is co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot with Hayley Carmichael and has been involved in all of their work to date as Director/Devisor/Performer, including: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Svenska Theatre Finland), You Can’t Take It With You (Royal Exchange Manchester), And The Horse You Rode In On (Drum Theatre Plymouth/Barbican/Brighton Festival), The Comedy of Errors (RSC), Six Seeds (National Theatre). Acting credits include:  Much Ado About Nothing, The Mysteries, Troilus And Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Globe), Rapunzel And The Red Shoes (Kneehigh). Directing credits include: The Mouse And
His Child (RSC), Accidental Death Of An Anarchist (as Associate Director at Octagon Theatre, Bolton), Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic). Film/TV Credits include: Pirates of the Caribbean (On Stranger Tides), Snow White and the Huntsman, Black Books.

Kathryn Hunter is an award-winning actor and director. Past roles at the Young Vic include Peter Brook’s Fragments and the astonishing physical performance Kafka’s Monkey which played for two seasons and continues to tour internationally. Other recent acting credits include Antony & Cleopatra, King Lear and The Grain Store (RSC), The Diver (Soho Theatre), Yerma (Arcola) and The Visit (National Theatre) for which she won an Olivier Award. Kathryn is also a founding member of Complicité. As a director her credits include Othello (RSC), The Birds (National) and Pericles (Shakespeare’s Globe). Film credits include Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

My Perfect Mind is on at the Unity Theatre on Hope Street from the 5^th to the 9^th March. Tickets are available from the Unity Theatre Box office, by telephone on 0844 87328888 or online at www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk.  Tickets are priced at £12 with concessions available at £10.