Actresses Emilia Fox and Imelda Staunton will return to the London stage in 2014 to lead productions of Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People at Hampstead theatre.
Fox will take centre stage for the first time since 2003’s revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses to star in Gionfriddo’s tale of two female university friends who covet each other’s lives decades down the line. One went on to become a heralded academic, the other built a family. Now they are each trying to claim each other’s territory.
The production, running from 16 January to 22 February, reunites Gionfriddo with director Peter DuBois, who staged her play Becky Shaw at the Almeida theatre to much acclaim.
Fox, who was reportedly put off stage work following the reviews of her ill-fated last production, has most recently been seen on television screens playing a femme fatale in comedy thriller The Wrong Mans and as forensic pathologist Nikki Alexander in long-running crime drama Silent Witness.
Staunton’s last London outings were far more recent, the actress having appeared in the Royal Court’s Circle Mirror Transformation and having won this year’s Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of the dubious pie-maker Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd.
Linday-Abaire’s Good People reunites Staunton with Sweeney Todd’s director Jonathan Kent, as she plays a single mother from South Boston who, after years of doing anything to make ends meet, sees the return of an old boyfriend as an opportunity not to be missed.
The play, by the writer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole, runs at the Swiss Cottage venue from 27 February to 5 April.
The spring season at Hampstead theatre follows an eagerly awaited winter production that brings the creative team behind 2012 hit 55 Days back together.
Written by Howard Brenton and directed by Howard Davies, Drawing The Line tells the story of Mr Justice Cyril Radcliffe, the man sent by the British to set the division between India and Pakistan. The new play premieres on 9 December, following the run of current comedy Raving.
You can watch Hampstead theatre’s Artistic Director Edward Hall introducing the season at the top of the page.