The Dresser
Directed by Richard Eyre
Based on the stage play by Ronald Harwood
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Ian McKellen, Emily Watson, Sarah Lancashire, Edward Fox, Vanessa Kirby, Tom Brooke
Starz
Air Date: Monday, May 30th, 2016, 9:00pm

As the Nazis crash bombs down on England, an aging actor looks to enthrall audiences with an epic rendition of King Lear, one more time. The actor is unwell, having just checked himself out of a hospital, and it’s up to his dresser, Norman, to keep him upright and ready despite his wife’s objections and pleas to cancel the show. This is the plot description for The Dresser, based on Ronald Harwood’s play and the 1983 film of the same name, that garnered 5 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Director, Actor (two), and Screenplay. The movie premieres tonight on Starz, a channel that is gaining a reputation for out of the box thinking. With several successful original series crossing many genres, Starz is building as a rival to pay-cable big boys HBO and Showtime. And in an era where every big movie at the theaters is a special effects comic book blockbuster, it’s refreshing to step back to a time where sets were built by human hands and not computer artists, and the stakes in a performance were truly high.

Spoilers for The Dresser below.