Joseph Fiennes and Francesca Annis lead the cast of this revival of John Osborne and Anthony Creighton’s play. Fiennes plays the eponymous Dillon, an unemployed actor/director, who is taken into the Elliot family by Kate Elliot, as something of a surrogate for the son she lost in the war. Sustained by her generosity, Dillon has an unpredictable effect on the rest of the family.

Joseph Fiennes last acted in London in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Trevor Nunn’s farewell production at the National. His other West End productions include A Month In The Country and The Woman In Black, in which he made his stage debut. With the RSC he has performed leading roles in Troilus And Cressida, Son Of Man, As You Like It and The Herbal Bed. It is for his screen roles, though, that Fiennes is best known. Appearances in Shakespeare In Love, Elizabeth, Enemy At The Gate and The Merchant Of Venice have made him one of the leading Brits in Hollywood.

Annis’s career spans over four decades of stage and screen work. Film roles in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra and Roman Polanski’s Macbeth brought her to the public’s attention in the 60s and 70s, while other movie credits include Krull, Dune and Onegin. Annis has recently finished a short spell on the London stage in Shoreditch Madonna, seen at the Soho theatre. She was also seen at the Donmar starring opposite Chiwetel Ejifor in The Vortex.

Geoffrey Hutchings, Zoe Tapper and Dorothy Atkinson are also in the cast, directed by Peter Gill.