Hollywood and Broadway icon Stockard Channing returns to the London stage to star in a new production of Olivier Award-winner Alexi Kaye Campbell’s acclaimed drama Apologia, directed by the multi-award winning Jamie Lloyd.
A compelling drama about the importance of family and the pressures that commitment and principles exert on it, Apologia sees Channing play Kristin Miller, a firebrand liberal matriarch of a dynamic family, who is presiding over her birthday celebrations.
An eminent art historian, Kristin’s almost evangelical dedication to her career and her political activism has resulted in her sons – Peter, a merchant banker, and Simon, a writer – harbouring deeply rooted and barely suppressed resentments towards her. The fissures in her relationship with them are brought to the fore by the recent publication of her memoir.
And as Kristin’s birthday celebrations unfold through barbed humour, Kristin’s family and friends, and ultimately Kristin herself, question their achievements and choices, and whether they were worth the sacrifices they made. In the increasingly fragmented political turmoil of today’s landscape these questions have never seemed more relevant and will strike a chord with audiences.
Apologia will see Channing performing in the West End for the first time in over a decade. Channing’s hugely popular film and TV credits include starring roles in The West Wing, The Good Wife, her Oscar® and Golden Globe nominated role in Six Degrees of Separation, and the iconic role of Rizzo in the film Grease. An acclaimed Broadway and West End star, Channing’s most recent performances on Broadway, It’s Only a Play and Other Desert Cities (a “peerless” performance – NY Times, for which she was nominated for her seventh Tony Award), have affirmed her position as a true theatrical legend. Laura Carmichael co-stars, best known for her hugely popular portrayal of ‘Lady Edith Crawley’ in ITV’s award winning series Downton Abbey.
This production also marks the return to the Trafalgar Studios of Jamie Lloyd, following his critically acclaimed productions of The Ruling Class and Macbeth, and also stars former Doctor Who actor Freema Agyeman and The Last Kingdom’s Joseph Millson (The Last Kingdom).
Apologia is a witty, topical and passionate play about generations, secrets, and warring perspectives.
Dramas have a rich history in the West End; find out more about plays in London.