Lynda Baron and Chris Larkin will join Zoë Wanamaker in the forthcoming transfer of Hugh Whitemore’s Stevie at the Hampstead Theatre.
Directed by Christopher Morahan, the biographical snapshot of poet Stevie Smith will play at the Swiss Cottage venue from 6 March to 18 April, with Olivier Award winner Wanamaker in the title role.
Both actors return to the production having previously appeared alongside the My Family and Harry Potter star during the show’s premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre last spring.
Arguably best known for her long-running role in Open All Hours, which lasted almost a decade, and as Linda Clarke in BBC soap EastEnders, Baron returns to the London stage following appearances in When We Married in the West End and Rookery Nook at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
Larkin, whose film credits include Hitler: The Rise Of Evil and Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, has previously appeared in productions including Noises Off at the Old Vic and Yes, Prime Minister in the West End.
Whitemore’s award-winning play tells the story of Stevie, a publishing company’s secretary who spends her evenings with her beloved aunt in a world of Battenberg cake, gossip and ginger nuts while still managing to write the piercing poetry and prose that will one day make her famous.
The production will open at the Hampstead Theatre following the current run of Hello/Goodbye, starring Miranda Raison and Shaun Evans, which closes on 28 February.