The Jamie Lloyd Company, the hugely successful partnership between the UK’s leading theatre company Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) and Artistic Director Jamie Lloyd, in association with British Airways, today announce two-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award-winner Jessica Chastain is to make her UK theatre debut leading the company of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, in a version by Frank McGuiness.
The production is part of a new season directed by Jamie Lloyd at the Playhouse Theatre, which previews from 27 November, with James McAvoy in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, freely adapted by Martin Crimp. A Doll’s House opens at Playhouse Theatre on 18 June, with previews from 10 June and runs until 5 September 2020.
Jamie Lloyd said today, “At The Jamie Lloyd Company, our aim is to work with the most exceptional actors in the world, offering them new and unexpected challenges. Jessica Chastain is a gifted artist and is, of course, well known and respected for her extraordinary screen performances. However, I’m delighted she is now returning to the stage – where her career began – in this bold reappraisal of Ibsen’s great masterpiece.”
The season sees The Jamie Lloyd Company and Ambassador Theatre Group offering 15,000 free tickets and 15,000 £15 tickets for under 30s, key workers and those receiving job seeker’s allowance and other government benefits, supported by British Airways.
£15 tickets
These will be available for specific Monday evening and Thursday matinee performances across the season. The first four of these performances will be for Cyrano de Bergerac and go on sale on Monday 4 November at 12pm with further dates to be announced.
Free tickets
A dedicated outreach manager will be distributing these tickets amongst both secondary state schools and community organisations who otherwise would not have access to the theatre. If you work with a group who does not have the means or opportunity to visit the theatre, please register your interest here.
With design by Soutra Gilmour. Full cast and creative team to be announced.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain plays Nora in her UK stage debut. Her theatre credits include The Heiress (Walter Kerr Theater), Salome (Wadsworth Theater), and The Cherry Orchard and Rodney’s Wife (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Her film credits include It Chapter Two, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Molly’s Game – for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, Woman Walks Ahead, The Zookeeper’s Wife, Miss Sloane – for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, A Most Violent Year – for which she received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe nomination and Film Independent Spirit Award nomination, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Miss Julie, Interstellar, Mama, Tree of Life, The Debt, Take Shelter, The Help – for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress, Zero Dark 30 – for which she won a Critics’ Choice Award and Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She was honored with the first-ever Critics’ Choice MVP Award in recognition of the breadth of her accomplishments in 2014 and has received numerous global nominations and accolades for her work from the LA Film Critics, British Academy of Film and Television, Broadcast Film Critics, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, National Board of Review, Screen Actors Guild, Film Independent and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. In addition, Chastain launched Freckle Films, a New York based film and television production company, in 2016; forthcoming films include 355, Ava and The Eyes of Tammy Faye in which she will also star.
Frank McGuinness’ original plays include The Factory Girls (Abbey Theatre Dublin/Tricycle Theatre/Arcola Theatre), Baglady (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Abbey Theatre Dublin/Hampstead Theatre – for which he received a London Evening Standard for Most Promising Playwright, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, Harvey’s Best Play Award, the Cheltenham Literary Prize Plays and Players Award, the Ewart- Briggs Peace Prize and the London Fringe Award), Innocence (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Carthaginians (Abbey Theatre, Dublin/Hampstead Theatre), Mary and Lizzie (RSC), The Bread Man (Gate Theatre, Dublin), The Bird Sanctuary (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Mutabilitie (National Theatre), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Hampstead Theatre/Vaudeville Theatre/New Ambassadors Theatre/Booth Theatre – he received the New York Critics’ Circle Award and Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play), Dolly West’s Kitchen (Abbey Theatre, Dublin/The Old Vic), Gates of Gold (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Speaking Like Magpies (RSC/Trafalgar Studios), There Came A Gypsy Riding (Almeida Theatre), Greta Garbo Came to Donegal (Tricycle Theatre), Crocodile (Sky Arts Live/Riverside Studios), The Match Box (Liverpool Playhouse), The Hanging Gardens (Abbey Theatre, Dublin) and Donegal – with music by Kevin Doherty (Abbey Theatre, Dublin).
Jamie Lloyd directs. His credits as Artistic Director of the company include Betrayal (Harold Pinter Theatre/Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway), One For The Road, The New World Order, Mountain Language, The Lover, The Collection, Landscape, A Kind of Alaska, Monologue, Party Time, Celebration, A Slight Ache, The Dumb Waiter (Pinter at the Pinter, Harold Pinter Theatre), Doctor Faustus (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Maids, The Homecoming, The Ruling Class, Richard III, The Pride, The Hothouse, Macbeth (Trafalgar Studios). Other theatre credits include Evita (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Guards at the Taj (Bush Theatre), The Pitchfork Disney, Killer (Shoreditch Town Hall), Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory) and Urinetown (The Other Palace/Apollo Theatre).
Season Listings
Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue, Charing Cross, London WC2N 5DE
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
27 November 2019 – 29 February 2020
Press Night: Friday 6 December, 7pm
Please note reviews are embargoed until Monday 9 December 2019.
A DOLL’S HOUSE
10 June – 5 September 2020
Press Night: Thursday 18 June