Former EastEnder Gillian Wright, best known for playing Jean Slater in the long-running BBC soap opera, will lead the cast performing a quintet of short Steven Berkoff plays at the Jermyn Street theatre this autumn.
Steven Berkoff’s Religion And Anarchy, which also stars Anthony Barclay, Lucy Hollis, Tom Lincoln and Clive Mendus, will play at the intimate fringe theatre from 24 September until 26 October.
The evening’s five short plays, which will be co-directed by Berkoff and Jermyn Street’s Associate Director Max Barton, tackle the anti-Semitism that the playwright and actor believes still prevails in Britain. Among the tales told are those of a mother telling a deeply prejudicial bedtime story, men queuing at a concentration camp and a two-hander described as a ‘pantomime of prejudice’.
For Wright, who leaves EastEnders after eight years in Walford, the production marks a return to the stage. Though she is best known for her soap role, she previously co-founded Pilot Theatre and has been seen on the London stage in productions including Tell Me (Donmar Warehouse) and Lady Audley’s Secret (Lyric Hammersmith).