The spring 2015 season at Donmar Warehouse will begin with a revival of Closer by Patrick Marber (After Miss Julie) featuring Rufus Sewell (The Tourist, A Knight's Tale, "Alexander Hamilton" in the HBO miniseries John Adams and, on stage, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and Rock 'n' Roll).
After winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play, among other honors, the original 1997 Royal National Theatre production of the comedy transferred to Broadway in 1999. Directed by the playwright, it featured an all-star cast of Anna Friel, Rupert Graves, Natasha Richardson and Ciarán Hinds as "Larry," the role to be played by Sewell, an Oliver Award winner and Tony Award nominee, in the revival.
Joining him in the cast of Closer are Nancy Carroll, Oliver Chris and Rachel Redford. David Leveaux directs, with performances running February 12, 2015 through April 4, 2015.
A brief synopsis reads: "Dan rescues Alice. Anna photographs Dan. Larry meets Anna online. Alice rescues Larry. This is London at the end of the twentieth century, where lives collide and fates change in an instant. Strangers become lovers and lovers become strangers..."
Mike Nichols directed a 2004 screen adaptation of Closer starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. Marber went on to write the screenplay for Notes on a Scandal which starred Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.
Donmar Warehouse also presented Marber's After Miss Julie, directed in 2003 by Michael Grandage. It too had a Broadway run, in 2009.
After Closer Donmar's upcoming season continues with a new play by James Graham called The Vote, directed by Josie Rourke and running from April 24, 2015 through May 7, 2015. Set in a fictional London polling station, its May 7 performance will be broadcast live on TV simultaneously with the real general election.
"Britain is the longest unbroken democracy in the world," the press notes explain. "Every five years we assert our right as citizens to uphold or replace our government--but, characteristically, we do it in the most unremarkable and understated of ways. For most of us, it's the only time we get to see inside the dingy back room of our local parish church, walk the linoleum floor of the municipal library or, as in this case, return to our primary school with chairs that are too small and memories that flood back from the distant past. These unglamorous settings are where history turns."
The world premiere of Temple by Steve Waters rounds out the Donmar season. Running from May 21 to July 25, 2015, the play recalls the Occupy London movement of 2011, with the closing of St Paul’s Cathedral and the City's legal action to remove the protestors from outside the church. The cast includes Olivier Award winner Simon Russell Beale as the Dean.
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