Hampstead Theatre will open its 2016 programme with the UK premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Rabbit Hole.
The play, which starred Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart when it was adapted for the big screen, will run at the Swiss Cottage venue from 29 January. The production will be directed by Hampstead Theatre’s Artistic Director Edward Hall.
Rabbit Hole tells the story of Becca and Howie Corbett, a happy suburban family whose world is turned inside out by a terrible loss. The tectonic change leaves them drifting perilously apart. Lindsay-Abaire’s drama follows the journey of grief and finding the way through it with hope and love.
The American playwright’s work has previously been seen at the Hampstead Theatre in the form of Good People, which proved so successful it earned a West End transfer. He also penned the book to screen to stage fantasy family musical Shrek.
Rabbit Hole was previously expected to receive a UK premiere in the West End in the autumn of 2014 in a production starring Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt, directed by former Shrek The Musical star Nigel Harman. That production didn’t make it to the Vaudeville Theatre stage due to a shift in schedules.
Rabbit Hole plays on Hampstead Theatre’s main stage following the winter run of Tom Stoppard’s spy drama Hapgood, which runs from 4 December to 16 January, and current hit The Moderate Soprano, which completes its sold out run on 28 November.