Olivia Williams, Michael Elwyn and Sylvestra Le Touzel are among the actors joining Charles Edwards and William Chubb in the National Theatre’s forthcoming production of political drama Waste.
Harley Granville Barker’s famously banned 1907 play will run at the South Bank venue’s Lyttelton Theatre from 3 November.
Stage and screen actress Williams returns to the National Theatre for the first time since 2008, when she led the cast of Happy Now?. Her numerous other stage credits include Scenes From A Marriage at the St James Theatre, while on screen she is best known for her roles in films including Emma, An Education and The Ghost Writer.
Elwyn and Le Touzel return to the theatrical political realm having both starred as Prime Ministers in Peter Morgan’s Olivier Award nominated play The Audience. Elwyn, who is also known for his role as Michael Howard in the Meryl Streep-led film The Iron Lady, played Anthony Eden alongside the show’s original Queen, Helen Mirren, while Le Touzel appeared as Margaret Thatcher alongside the West End’s more recent monarch, Kristin Scott Thomas.
Joining the trio alongside current Richard II co-stars Edwards and Chubb are Andrew Havill (This House, NT), One Foot In The Grave’s Doreen Mantle (The Voysey Inheritance, NT), Gerrard McArthur (Scenes From An Execution, NT) and The Archers’ Emerald O’Hanrahan.
Directed by Roger Michell, Waste follows Henry Trebell, a visionary Independent politician who’s co-opted by the Tories to push through a controversial bill, as the married woman he’s been having an affair with suffers a lethal backstreet abortion and he becomes threatened by public scandal.
Waste will open at the Lyttelton Theatre following current hit shows The Motherf**ker With The Hat and Three Days In The Country, and forthcoming Bristol Old Vic transfer Jane Eyre. The production is currently booking until 16 January, with further dates still to be announced.