Stacy Keach in PAMPLONA. Photo by Liz Lauren.

The Goodman has announces the return of Jim McGrath’s PAMPLONA starring Stacy Keach as Ernest Hemingway, directed by Artistic Director Robert Falls. PAMPLONA ran for 11 preview performances last spring but closed prematurely after Keach suddenly fell ill on opening night.

“I’m deeply grateful to Robert Falls, Goodman Theatre, and the good people of Chicago for encouraging me and allowing me to ‘get back on the horse,” said Keach. “I’m so excited to be returning to Pamplona and the great city.” Keach earned a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award nomination for a 1998 television mini-series portrayal of Hemingway.

Falls and Keach previously collaborated KING LEAR (2006) and Arthur Miller’s final play, FINISHING THE PICTURE (2004). “I’m thrilled to reunite with Stacy Keach and Jim McGrath for what I know will be a triumphant return to this beautifully rendered work about one of our most charismatic yet complicated literary titans — and a Chicagoland native — Ernest Hemingway,” said Falls.

From the press release “in PAMPLONA, after the prize comes the pressure. Basking in the glory of career-defining awards—the 1953 Pulitzer Prize and the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954—legendary writer Ernest Hemingway insists his best work is yet to come. Five years later, holed up in a Spanish hotel with a looming deadline, he struggles to knock out a story about the rivalrous matadors of Pamplona. But his real battles lie outside the bullfighting arena; in declining health, consumed by his troubled fourth marriage and tormented by the specter of past glories, he must now conquer the deepening despair that threatens to engulf him.”

PAMPLONA runs July 10 – August 19 in the Owen Theatre. Previous ticket holders and Goodman Members will have the opportunity to purchase priority tickets on February 16; general on sale is February 23.