Star of Sense And Sensibility and Any Human Heart, Charity Wakefield will return to the stage in spring 2014 to lead the cast of The Blackest Black at Hampstead’s theatre downstairs.
The actress, who appeared in No Naughty Bits at the Swiss Cottage venue in 2011, is joined in Jeremy Brock’s unconventional love story by actors Ian Bonar and John Light.
The production runs from 9 January to 8 February.
Wakefield, whose stage credits include The Cherry Orchard (National theatre) and The Circle (Chichester Festival Theatre), plays extrovert artist Abi in Brock’s drama that brings together this free spirit with straight-laced astronomer Martin at an observatory in the middle of the Arizona desert. As they struggle to connect, an unexpected series of events are set in motion.
Light, who plays Martin, spent last summer starring as Oberon in Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while Bonar, who was seen in TV shows Black Mirror and Southcliffe earlier this year, may be best known for playing Dave Wiltshire in Hotel Babylon.
While The Blackest Black plays in Hampstead’s more experimental downstairs space, Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn will play in the Main House (16 January to 22 February). The tale of female university friends who, decades later, covet each other’s lives, follows Hampstead’s current drama Drawing The Line, which plays until 11 January.