The King Of The North is set to storm the West End later this year for the UK premiere of Sam Shepard’s True West. Kit Harington will star alongside Johnny Flynn as warring brothers, Austin and Lee, in the ferociously funny, modern classic.
Kit is making his West End return after a two-year break following his turn in Jamie Lloyd’s Doctor Faustus. His stage appearance follows the filming of the final scenes of the internationally renowned and award-winning Game Of Thrones. A sad fact for many but a source of great excitement for theatre fans as we may see him on stage more often… maybe.
Johnny is fresh from starring in the widely celebrated film Beast and US TV series Genius. Following his critically-praised performance in Hangmen, he’s also received rave reviews for the New York transfer recently.
Kit and Johnny will be playing Austin and Lee respectively. Two of the most challenging and sought after roles in modern drama, some of the greatest American and British actors of the last 30 years have played the brothers since the play’s debut in 1980.
Set against the searing heat of the Californian desert, True West pits brother against brother as a family tears itself apart, exposing the cracks in the American Dream. While housesitting for his mother, Austin struggles to write his latest screenplay. Drifter and estranged brother, Lee, stumbles back into Austin’s life, distracting him from his work and pushing him to his limits.
True West will be directed by Olivier-nominated Matthew Dunster who has said: “There is something dangerous about True West. It’s always unsettled me. I was always scared of reading it. Fearful of its burning content but also of its brilliance. When Sam Shepard died I went back to it and I knew I had to find way of doing it. And I have questions about the play: Is it about two brothers, or is it about how we all grapple with two sides of ourselves, thought by thought, dream by dream? Was the promise of the ‘West’, or is the promise of any mythical dream, really ‘True’? You need the very best actors to take this kind of play on. You preferably need two actors who can sniff the danger and are prepared to be unsettled and to unsettle. To have Kit and Johnny with me to ask the questions, and to take on these roles in Shepard’s masterpiece, is as exciting as my job gets. I can’t wait!”
True West is set to open at the Vaudeville Theatre from 23 November 2018.
To book tickets to True West, click here.