Star of The Body Farm and Waking The Dead, Tara Fitzgerald will return to the London stage in March to appear opposite Ben Chaplin and Jemma Redgrave in Farewell To The Theatre.
The new play, which centres on Harley Granville-Barker, a man widely credited with laying the foundations for modern British theatre, runs at Hampstead theatre from 1 March to 7 April.
Chaplin, who last graced the London stage when he appeared in The Reporter at the National Theatre, will play the British writer and producer who the audience finds in 1916 Massachusetts, surrounded by a group of British expats trying to find their way in an academic, theatre-obsessed community.
In addition to receiving an Olivier Award nomination for his performance in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Glass Menagerie, Chaplin has found success on screen, appearing in films including The Thin Red Line and The Remains Of The Day.
Fitzgerald, who recently starred in Broken Glass in the West End, also successfully balances stage and screen work, having appeared in London productions of The Misanthrope and And Then There Were None, while also building screen credits including Sirens, Brassed Off and TV series The Virgin Queen.
Redgrave, whose last London outing came in the influential The Great Game: Afghanistan season at the Tricycle theatre, has film credits including Mansfield Park and Howard’s End.
The cast of Richard Nelson’s play, which is directed by Roger Michell, is completed by Jason Watkins, Andrew Havill, Louis Hilyer and William French, who makes his professional stage debut in the production.
Farewell To The Theatre opens at the Hampstead theatre following the venue’s upcoming production of The Trial Of Ubu, which teams writer Simon Stephens with director Katie Mitchell to tell the tale of an amoral megalomaniac being brought before an international tribunal.
MA