Kevin Spacey receives standing ovation for first stage performance since trial

Kevin Spacey was met with a standing ovation last night (October 16) as he returned to the stage for the first time since being cleared of sexual assault charges.

Spacey performed a brief scene from the Shakespeare play Timon Of Athens at a theatre in Oxford, during a lecture held in memory of the late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton.

Evidently, the extract had been chosen for a reason. Douglas Murray, the conservative columnist who delivered the lecture and invited Spacey to perform in Oxford and delivered the lecture, told the Times that Timon of Athens was about what “happens when a society drops a person for no reason”.

Views of Scruton’s legacy remain divisive, and while his work was admired by conservatives, he has been accused of fuelling modern anti-immigrant sentiment.

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In July, Spacey was acquitted of all nine charges he was facing, including seven counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

He was accused of sexual offences against four men, alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2013. He was accused of performing a sex act on a former aspiring actor while he slept, and of several other assaults – including grabbing a driver’s crotch during a car ride to a celebrity party outside London.

The performance comes days after the Prince Charles cinema in London withdrew its offer to host the premiere of the film Control, reportedly when it learned the film featured Spacey. He does not appear in the film in person but provides the voice of a villain who remotely hijacks the self-driving car of the home secretary.

Spacey has yet to return to any mainstream productions in film, television and theatre.

Earlier this month, the actor was rushed to hospital after experiencing a health scare in Uzbekistan.