A theatre practitioner with five decades of experience as actor, director, voice artist, teacher, writer and playwright.

Passionately pursuing a career that has taken me to over sixty countries, offered opportunities to play Shakespeare at Stratford, direct in the West End, and perform solo shows worldwide. Now focusing on nurturing other artists through mentoring, writing original work and dramatisations. And after recording over two hundred audiobooks I still love the microphone.

This video introduces you to my show Shylock and who to contact if you would like to see a full 75 minute performance.

Worldwide Press Acclaim for Shylock

Armstrong is nothing short of incredible… it is an exceptional piece of theatre. Everyone should see it.

The Independent on Sunday – London

It’s all fascinating, a nimble analysis of the thorny, much-abused character and the great, troublesome play.

The Washington Post

It delights enlightens and dazzles, With a leer, a wink, a shrug, he expresses more than words can say. In a word, brilliant.

Jewish Bulletin of North California

Shakespeare fans will kneel in homage and raise their arms to shout ‘Hallelujah’.

The Dominion, Wellington NZ

This performance that deserves to be sold out. It is theatre for thinking men and women, it is theatre of the imagination, of liberating emotions and, also, of bold thinking.

Kurier, Vienna

Gareth Armstrong is magnetic throughout… You need not be Jewish nor and Eng Lit expert to appreciate this: you need only be human.

The List, Edinburgh (5 Stars)

This is as good as theatre gets.. It was undiluted joy and a privilege to watch.

Liverpool Daily Post

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News

So good to be getting to see plenty of live shows now that theatre is BACK! During the last Lockdown I got my mojo back for performing my own sol0 show, Shylock, after a fifteen year gap. Since I re-launched the re-vamped version at The Playground Theatre here in London in 2021 I’ve had the pleasure of performing it countrywide. Gigs are lined up too for 2022 -’23, so it’s great to have the diary filling up again.

I am hoping that more schools and colleges will take up the show as I think its theme of anti-semitism is all too relevant now. Resurrecting Shylock and his only friend Tubal in their old age has also given me some new perspectives on my script and Shakespeare’s matchless text. I now also include a workshop (A Wilderness of Monkeys) with schools performances.

The Jermyn Street Theatre, which has been at the forefront of keeping theatre alive during the last couple of years has staged live and streamed performances of my production of Shakespeare’s epic poem The Rape of Lucrece, and Wilde Without The Boy, my dramatisation of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis both performed by the brilliant indefatigable Gerard Logan, with whom I have collaborated so rewardingly for many years. We have now also premiered a sequel to the evening of supernatural tales by E.F. Benson (Night Terrors) which toured so successfully in 2019, and Hauntings, with atmospheric sound by Simon Slater, is on the road from the autumn.

Trinity College London had to suspend most of its live examining programme in Speech and Drama, especially overseas – so my globetrotting wings have been clipped for the time being. Similarly the work of PPAD in assessing and monitoring drama students was suspended, but is now reviving for live presentations. It’s so exciting to see young talent back where it belongs and some of the best work I’ve seen in recent months has come from such emerging talent.

Recording studios reopened last year so that I was able to finish the last half dozen recordings of all Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels, with my producer, Paul Kent. I also recorded a 24hr reading of James Pope-Hennessy’s biography, Queen Mary, for Heavy Entertainment – which was a lot more fun than it may sound. The epic The Great Book of King Arthur was also a fascinating read this spring, as was The Lost Diary of SamuelPepys. Audiobooks for Games Workshop, Heavy Entertainment, Rushforth and id Audio have kept me out of mischief, and recording audio dramas for Big Finish has been great fun.

My most recent project has been directing the hugely talented Alison Skilbeck in her new solo piece called Uncommon Ground which had its first performances at The Buxton Festival Fringe and is aiming for Edinburgh 2023. Currently I am working with writer James McManus and a group of four terrific actors on his play Einstein and Me which has a reading this autumn with a view to a production in 2023