An independent production of Ronald Harwood’s bracing, heartbreaking drama, The Dresser, opens for a two-week run on Friday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture’s Crawford Theater.

First performed onstage in 1980, The Dresser was subsequently adapted for film, featuring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins in the lead roles. Based on Harwood’s own experiences as a dresser for British actor Sir Donald Wolfit, the play tells the story of a ragtag theatrical troupe touring King Lear, MacBeth, and Othello, among other Shakespearean masterworks, in England during World War ll. Meanwhile, the lead actor / manager playing Lear, known as Sir, is experiencing a mental breakdown, affecting both his physical and emotional capacity, even as the war rages on. It falls to his ‘dresser,’ Norman, to prepare Sir for one more performance as Lear.

The upcoming Bozeman production of The Dresser is the brainchild of old friends and artistic collaborators Douglas MacIntyre, who is directing, Bruce Hall, who wrote an adaptation of the original script and plays Norman, and actor John Hosking, playing Sir. Longtime Montana theater makers, the threesome have been creating art together for decades.

Bruce and I first met in 1978, when I was hired as an actor for the Virginia City Players and Bruce was Music Director,” MacIntyre says. Hosking was also a member (and co-founder) of the Virginia City troupe, and remembers performing in a production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, adapted by Hall. “I played Dr. Jekyll and Doug played Mr. Hyde,” Hosking recalls. “Our transitions into one another often cleverly took place on stage. Bruce also wrote and directed a dozen of the original plays performed by The Vigilante Theatre Company, which toured out of Bozeman for 30 years. Also, I might note that the first time I worked with Doug we were both part of the first full summer of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MSIP).”

MacIntyre and Hall worked together most recently in 2021, when Hall served as Music Director for a Bozeman production of A Montana Radio Christmas 1944, co-written by MacIntyre and creative partner Maggie Peterson.

The Dresser has been in the works for a couple of years as the three friends began putting the pieces together. “The first I heard of this project was almost two years ago, when Maggie told me about an adaptation Bruce had done of the original script,” recalls MacIntyre. “The other person Bruce talked to before me was John (Hosking). As Bruce said, ‘If I can’t have John in the role of Sir, then I don’t want to do it.’ I absolutely agreed with that sentiment. John is of an age and stature that this is the perfect time for him to tackle the challenging role of Sir.”

The next question was who would play the titular role of Norman, Sir’s dresser? According to MacIntyre, the choice was obvious: “Bruce. I’m excited to see how their history of working together plays out in this production.” Hall concurs, adding, “A year ago, it occurred to me that I was the right age to play Norman in The Dresser, and that John was my definitive Sir. It was now or never. I approached Doug, whose vision and direction I trust, and he said yes. I’m excited to be with friends and talented Bozeman artists who also said yes. This is a dream realized.”

Rounding out the local cast are Cara Wilder, Heather Michele Hackett, Sean Hecock, and Gabe Trauman. Wilder last performed with Hosking in 2025 in Tracy Letts’ The Minutes, and previously the two co-starred as student and teacher over 30 years ago in a production of David Mamet’s Oleanna.

For a seasoned actor, the opportunity to play King Lear is typically a once in a lifetime experience. One of the most challenging roles ever written, performing the role requires great talent, dexterity, and stamina. But, to play an actor who is playing King Lear, well, that is another thing entirely. Hosking has the good fortune, and talent, to do both. The actor had returned to MSIP to play King Lear for the 2022 tour, and now has an opportunity to revisit the role, but in a way that is “so meta,” as some might say.

Having played Lear, Hosking has an intimate knowledge of the story and characters to draw on as he creates his portrayal of Sir: “It strikes me that the titular character in The Dresser, (my assistant/nurse/friend) seems to be a combination of Lear’s disguised friend and protector, the Duke of York, and the character of Lear’s Fool. The Dresser’s relationship to King Lear is an echo of the chaos created by an aging, ailing, egocentric tyrant. The Dresser shines light on the unseen backstage characters and their tribulations.” Hosking jokes, “The ‘dresser’ is crucial—not a piece of furniture.” MacIntyre agrees: “The parallels in the behavior of Harwood’s Sir and Shakespeare’s Lear are clear. Each has a kingdom that they rule for better or worse. And at Sir’s side, like the Fool is for Lear, is Norman, the dresser, watching it all come apart.”

As director, a challenge for MacIntyre was how to stage the play to put his own stamp on it. “It was when I stopped thinking about The Dresser as a play and started to think of it as just a story that I realized it had the makings of a classic theatre ghost story, which then got me to thinking about the ‘ghost light,’” he explains. “The ghost light is the single light bulb illuminating the stage of an otherwise dark theater. Of course, it has a pragmatic purpose: to keep anyone who needs to cross a dark stage from stumbling into things. But traditionally, it is also there to provide light for the ghosts of former performers that are known to haunt theaters. The older the theater, the more ghosts it is likely to have, which led directly to the second challenge: We needed to find a theater capable of being haunted. For me, that was the Crawford Theater at the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture.” Fortuitously, the theater was available for performances the two weeks leading up to Halloween.

Asked what drew him to this play in particular, Hall mentions a universality in the themes of The Dresser: “Drama is about conflict, and conflict is universal; that’s why good plays are timeless. Drama is about people in trouble; this has always intrigued me and driven me as a theater artist. The Dresser is about an itinerant acting company touring during World War II, navigating precarious worlds, both within and without. Their struggle to survive is what feeds and compels the action of this play. To me, it’s an immersion into a tiny little world of huge personal consequence—it’s a fight to the death. That’s thrilling to me.”

The Dresser will be presented in The Emerson’s Crawford Theater on Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, and the following week, Wednesday through Saturday, October 28, 29, 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. A Saturday matinee will be held on October 24 at 3:00pm. Tickets are available at Eventbrite or via a link on MT Shakespeare in the Parks’ website.