Damian Lewis is to star in the second West End revival of an Edward Albee play to be announced since the playwright’s death last month. Lewis will appear in The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at the Theatre Royal Haymarket next year, around the corner from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill at the Harold Pinter theatre.
Lewis will play Martin, an esteemed architect whose wife and teenage son struggle to come to terms with the news that he is in love with a goat named Sylvia. The part was played by Bill Pullman when the show ran on Broadway in 2002 and by Jonathan Pryce at the Almeida in London in 2004. The play won Albee a Tony award, a Drama Desk award and the Pulitzer prize for drama.
Speaking to Interview magazine in 2002, Albee said of the play: “What can I tell you about it? It’s one long act, three scenes, four characters and a goat … There’s a real goat and also a person who becomes a scapegoat. It is a play that seems to be one thing at the beginning, but the chasm opens as we go further into it. And I think it is going to shock and disgust a number of people. With any luck, there will be people standing up, shaking their fists during the performance and throwing things at the stage. I hope so!”
The production, directed by Ian Rickson, has a 12-week run and begins previews on 24 March 2017. The official opening night is 5 April.
