Theatre
Fearon made his reputation as a stage actor, working at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre; [2] Manchester Contact Theatre; Manchester Royal Exchange; [2] Oxford Playhouse; [2] Barn Theatre, Kent; The Almeida; The Crucible, Sheffield; The Donmar Warehouse; The Royal Shakespeare Theatres in Stratford and the National Theatre. [2] He starred in Othello—opposite Gillian Kearney's Desdemona— in Liverpool at the age of 24, becoming the first black actor to play Othello on RSC main stages for over 40 years. [3] His other early stage roles included Charles Surface in The School for Scandal ; [2] Betty/Martin in Cloud 9 (play) ; [2] Longaville in Love's Labour's Lost ; [2] Ferdinand in The Tempest ; [2] and Pete in Blues for Mister Charlie . [2]
His early theatre work in London included Hugo/Frederick in Ring Round the Moon at the Lilian Baylis Theatre; [2] the title role in The Invisible Man (his one-man show) at the Bridewell Theatre; [2] and Pierre in Venice Preserv'd at the Almeida Theatre. [2]
He has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company(RSC) in their Stratford and London theatres and on tour. [2] He was the first black actor to play the title role in Othello in the main Royal Shakespeare theatre (director Michael Attenborough, 1999) giving a performance alongside Richard McCabe's strong and repressed Iago. [4] They also played opposite one another in 1996's The White Devil (Gale Edwards, Swan theatre) where he played Brachiano and McCabe the villain Flamineo. [2] Fearon was directed by Attenborough also as Romeo alongside Zoe Waites as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (RSC, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1997). [2]
Other RSC roles have included the First Knight and First Tempter in Murder in the Cathedral (Swan, 1993), [2] Stubb in Moby Dick (musical) (TOP, 1993), [2] the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice (RST, 1994), [2] Paris in Troilus and Cressida (Ian Judge, RST, 1996), [2] the Marquis of Posa in Don Carlos (play) (1999), [2] Pericles in Adrian Noble's Pericles, Prince of Tyre (RST and Roundhouse, 2002) [2] and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (play) (2012). [2]
In 2003, he played 'Oberon' in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre. [2] In 2004, he appeared in as Jean Kiyabe in World Music by Steve Waters at the Donmar Warehouse, [2] and in the same year at the National Theatre as Mark in Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads by Roy Williams. [2]
In 2010, he starred as Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, [2] the production was directed by Michael Buffong at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. [2]
In July 2013 he played Macduff opposite Kenneth Branagh (as Macbeth) and Alex Kingston (as Lady Macbeth) in Macbeth at Manchester International Festival.Manchester. [2] His performance was broadcast to cinemas on 20 July as part of National Theatre Live. [5]
In December 2017 he played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. [2] The production was directed by Michael Buffong. [6]
