In a touring Shakespearean theater group, a backstage hand - the dresser, is devoted to the brilliant but tyrannical head of the company. He struggles to support the deteriorating star as the company struggles to carry on during the London blitz. The pathos of his backstage efforts rival the pathos in the story of Lear and the Fool that is being presented on-stage, as the situation comes to a crisis.
Albert Finney
as Sir
Tom Courtenay
as Norman
Edward Fox
as Oxenby
Zena Walker
as Her Ladyship
Eileen Atkins
as Madge
Michael Gough
as Frank Carrington
Cathryn Harrison
as Irene
Betty Marsden
as Violet Manning
Sheila Reid
as Lydia Gibson
Lockwood West
as Geoffrey Thornton
Donald Eccles
as Mr. Godstone
Llewellyn Rees
as Horace Brown
