Max Bennett, Gwilym Lee and Joanna Vanderham will star in the forthcoming production of The Promise, which plays as part of the final Donmar Trafalgar season next month.
Star of the Royal Court’s Posh and In Basildon, Bennett has previously appeared in Luise Miller at the Donmar Warehouse, while Lee has appeared at the Covent Garden venue in King Lear and in the Donmar West End production of Hamlet.
Both actors have also enjoyed an extensive career on screen with Bennett appearing in films including Anna Karenina opposite Jude Law and Keira Knightley, The Sweeney and The Duchess, and Lee in TV series Fresh Meat, Lewis, Waterloo Road and Ashes To Ashes alongside This House star Philip Glenister.
Vanderham, who makes her professional stage debut in the production, is best known for her television roles in The Runaway, Above Suspicion and new store-set period drama The Paradise.
Award-winning playwright Penelope Skinner’s new adaptation of Aleksei Arbuzov’s 1965 classic, which tells the heartrending story of three teenagers in 1943 war-torn Leningrad whose allegiances, love and vow of solidarity is stretched to the limits, will play at Trafalgar Studio 2 from 15 November (press night 19 November) to 8 December.
The Promise is directed by Alex Sims, Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse from 2007 to 2008, where he worked on productions of Othello, Parade, Absurdia, Betrayal, Kiss Of The Spider Woman and John Gabriel Borkman.
The two-time Olivier Award nominated season, which showcases work from graduates of the Donmar’s Resident Assistant Director programme, will also include August Strindberg’s The Dance Of Death directed by Titas Halder and Vercors’ The Silence Of The Sea directed by Simon Evans.