Imogen Stubbs, Bel Powley and Antonia Thomas will be spending Christmas at the Hampstead Theatre this year, as they lead the cast of black comedy Elephants.
The Christmas-set tale, the debut play by television writer Rose Heiney, also stars Helen Atkinson-Wood, Adam Buchanan, Jonathan Guy Lewis and Richard Lintern. It plays at the venue’s Downstairs space from 11 December to 17 January.
Christmas Eve; the tree is trimmed, the gifts are wrapped, the wine is mulling and Richard and Sally await their guests. But the fallout from last Christmas is far from a distant memory and it will take more than a couple of handfuls of tinsel to disguise the cracks in the relationships. An evening of revelations and dark secrets awaits.
Elephants marks the first Hampstead Theatre performance for Stubbs who, though recently on the London stage in productions including Little Revolution (Almeida Theatre) and Strangers On A Train (Gielgud Theatre) is still best known for her big screen appearances in films including Sense And Sensibility and Twelfth Night.
Powley boasts credits at the Royal Court (Tusk Tusk and Jumpy) and on Broadway (Arcadia), while Thomas is best known for her work on three series of teen drama Misfits.
While Elephants plays Downstairs at the Hampstead Theatre, the main house will host the revival of Nina Raine’s Tiger Country. The drama, set amid the staff of a busy NHS hospital stretched to breaking point, runs from 8 December.