Dimetos, by playwright Athol Fugard, is a powerful and deeply moving story about love, guilt and retribution, which explores faith in a modern world of moral decay.

Exhausted with life in the city as a highly skilled engineer, Dimetos escapes to a remote coastal village with his niece and housekeeper in search of a simpler existence. Five years on, a stranger from the metropolis arrives to tempt him back with devastating consequences.

Lauded actor Jonathan Pryce plays Dimetos. On the London stage, his extensive credits include the musicals Miss Saigon, Oliver! and My Fair Lady, and, more recently, Glengarry Glen Ross and The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia? He has been seen on the big screen in films including The Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy, Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Ronin and Evita.

Dimetos playwright Fugard, who also acts and directs, is one of South Africa’s best known theatrical exports. His other plays include Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Master Harold… And The Boys, Blood Knot, Tony Award-winner The Island, Hello And Goodbye, which was staged at the Trafalgar Studio 2 in spring 2008, and Playland, which was previously staged at the Donmar Warehouse in 1993.

Donmar Warehouse Associate Director Douglas Hodge directs Dimetos. The actor turned director made his Donmar Warehouse debut at the helm of Absurdia, while other directorial credits include the wartime farce See How They Run, which played a national tour before coming to the West End’s Duchess theatre in 2006.

For more about Dimetos at the Donmar Warehouse, read the First Night Feature or Big Interview with Alex Lanipekun.