As actor Laura Donnelly and her partner, playwright Jez Butterworth, return to the West End, Kate Lloyd meets theatre’s most compelling couple. Photographs by Juliette Cassidy. Styling by Rebecca Purshouse.
“I’m looking forward to finding out what my children are in therapy complaining about me [for] in 30 years’ time,” says Laura Donnelly, with a wry laugh. Sitting, chin in hand, at the back of a rustic Primrose Hill café, on a crisp autumn afternoon, motherhood is on the 41-year-old’s mind – and not just because we’re surrounded by raucous tables of JoJo Maman Bébé-clad tots.
The Belfast-born actor is gearing up to play the lead in what’s already tipped to be the hottest West End ticket of 2024. The Hills of California, a firecracker of a new family drama, is showing at the Harold Pinter Theatre from January, written by Jez Butterworth, her longtime collaborator, romantic partner, “favourite writer” and the father to her daughters, Radha, seven, and Ailbhe, six. It’s a show that has maternal relationships at its heart.