Hampstead Theatre has announced casting for its revival of Tom Stoppard’s acclaimed play The Invention of Love.
Directed by Blanche McIntyre (The Merry Wives of Windsor – RSC), BAFTA, Olivier and Tony award-winner Simon Russell Beale returns to Hampstead for the play, starring as A E Housman. Further casting is to be announced.
Simon Russell Beale’s extensive theatre credits include The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre, West End and Broadway), King Lear and Hamlet (National Theatre) and Jumpers (West End and Broadway). His film and TV work includes The Death of Stalin, The Hollow Crown, Dunkirk and House of the Dragon.
In the play, the noted Latin scholar and celebrated poet of A Shropshire Lad, A E Houseman, is being ferried across the Styx to Hades – but beyond the stygian gloom on the other side of the river he finds, to his surprise, the Oxford University of his youth. Alive with the academic debates that shaped his work and the friendships that shaped his life, this is the Oxford of Ruskin and Pater; a place still marked by the brilliance of a recently departed student called Wilde…
Tom Stoppard returns to Hampstead after revivals of Hapgood and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Stoppard is winner of eight Evening Standard, three Olivier and five Tony Awards, and his plays include Leopoldstadt, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Arcadia.
Joining McIntyre in the creative team are designer Morgan Large, lighting designer Peter Mumford, and composer and sound designer Max Pappenheim, with further creatives to be announced.
Actor Simon Russell Beale said in a statement: “I’m delighted to be working with Blanche McIntyre on Tom Stoppard’s great masterpiece The Invention of Love. The story concerns the poet and scholar A E Housman whose writing and ideas I find deeply moving.”
Director Blanche McIntyre said: “The Invention of Love is a true masterpiece and a play I love beyond measure, and I have hoped all my life to be able to direct it. It’s a dream to be working on it with the great Simon Russell Beale. His extraordinary skill with language, intelligence, wit, and genius will illuminate the part of A E Housman and the whole play. I am so excited that he is on board.”
The Invention of Love is playing at Hampstead Theatre from 4 December 2024 to 25 January 2025.
More about tickets to The Invention of Love at Hampstead Theatre London
Related News
Kimberly Akimbo extends at Hampstead Theatre until 14 November following glowing reviews at European premiere
First look: rehearsal photos for Some Woman starring Anne-Marie Duff at the Dorfman Theatre
Kimberly Akimbo reviews: critics say Maria Friedman triumphs in a rapturously received UK premiere
Maria Friedman stars in European premiere Tony-winning Kimberly Akimbo at Hampstead Theatre
Latest News
Everything you need to know about The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal in London
Nina Raine’s sweeping new adaptation of Middlemarch arrives at the RSC: See brand-new images from the production
What to expect from Pride the Musical ahead of highly anticipated transfer to the Bridge Theatre
