Hayley Atwell will star in Alexi Kaye Campbell's Olivier award-winning play The Pride as part of the Trafalgar Transformed season.
Having directed its premiere at London's Royal Court in 2008, Jamie Lloyd will return to Kaye Campbell's play as the third production of his West End season. It time-hops between 1958 and the present – with Kaye Campbell set to update the play for added currency – to examine society's shifting attitudes to homosexuality. Rehearsals start on 8 July, with the first performance at the Trafalgar Studios only a month away, on 8 August.
Atwell, who last appeared on stage in Kaye Campbell's The Faith Machine at the Royal Court two years ago, will play the twin roles of Sylvia: one, a former actress in the 1950s, whose husband conceals his homosexuality; the other, the friend of a promiscuous gay man alive today.
She will be joined by Harry Hadden-Paton and Al Weaver, both of whom have worked with Lloyd before, who similarly play double roles across the decades. Gavin and Stacey star Mathew Horne completes the cast in three additional roles.
The West End run makes The Pride one of the most successful new plays of the past decade. Its New York premiere, which starred Hugh Dancy, Ben Whishaw and Andrea Riseborough, won nominations for several American awards, while Sheffield Crucible produced a revival led by artistic director Daniel Evans in 2011.
