Second Best starring Asa Butterfield to extend its run at the Riverside Studios

New play Second Best featuring Sex Education star Asa Butterfield is adding more dates to its current run at Riverside Studios in London.

Asa Butterfield makes his stage debut in Barney Norris’ new play.

The show opened this week to positive reviews from London’s theatre critics, and was scheduled to run until 22 February. This has now been extended to 1 March 2025.

The new play is written by Barney Norris (Visitors), based on David Foenkinos’s internationally best-selling novel, and directed by former Donmar Warehouse artistic director Michael Longhurst (Next to Normal).

At ten years old, Martin Hill (Asa Butterfield) was on the brink of stardom, down to the final two contenders for the role of Harry Potter but narrowly missing out. Now an adult, Martin is about to embark on the ultimate adventure – fatherhood. As he navigates this whirlwind of emotions, he is pulled back to that pivotal moment in his past as he struggles to move beyond imagining what his life might have been.

British actor Asa Butterfield is best known for his role as Otis Milburn in the Netflix worldwide phenomenon Sex Education. The series returned for a fourth and final series last September. He will next star in Out Of The Dust for Netflix, a six-part psychological thriller, opposite Molly Windsor, and Christopher Eccleston.

Barney Norris is an award winning playwright and novelist. His plays include Visitors, Every You Every Me, Eventide, Echo’s End, While We’re Here, Nightfall, We Started To Sing, A Stranger Comes To Town and The Band Back Together. Barney has won a number of writing awards including the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright for Visitors, and a South Bank Sky Arts Times Breakthrough Award for Literature.

Award-winning director Michael Longhurst is the former Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse. His upcoming projects include a new production of Much Ado About Nothing for the RSC starring Freema Agyeman as Beatrice and Nick Blood as Benedick. His recent productions include musical Next to Normal at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

Joining Michael Longhurst in the creative team are: Set and costume design by Fly Davis, Lighting design by Paule Constable, and Sound design and score by Richard Hammarton.

Produced by Simon Friend Entertainment, Second Best is playing at the Riverside Studios in London until 1 March 2025.

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Main photo: Second Best at Riverside Studios London. Asa Butterfield. Photo supplied by production