Also in the cast are Geff Francis as the Bailiff, Nigel Lindsay as the Defendant, Paul Ready as Bernard, Nick Sampson as the Doctor, Colin Stinton as the Defence Attorney and Nick Woodeson as the prosecutor. Set and costume designs are by Peter McKintosh, lighting by Neil Austin and sound by Matthew Berry.

English-born Mahoney started his career as an English teacher and an editor for a medical journal publisher. Then in 1977 John Malkovich enticed him to join Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, where Mahoney launched a very successful acting career. He won the 1986 Tony for Best Featured Actor In A Play for The House Of Blue Leaves on Broadway. And he was most recently seen in London when Steppenwolf brought their production of The Man Who Came To Dinner to the Barbican in 1998.

Romance, a courtroom farce, received its world premiere at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theatre Company earlier this year. Demand for the run was so high that the run was extended before it even began. However, the Almeida run represents the first Mamet play to appear at the trendy Islington venue (although the Almeida has a long tradition of staging new American plays, especially those of Neil LaBute).

Posner is a very experienced Mamet director. In recent years he has directed starry revivals of a Life In The Theatre with Patrick Stewart and Joshua Jackson, Sexual Perversity In Chicago with Minnie Driver, Matthew Perry and Hank Azaria, and Oleanna with Julia Stiles and Aaron Eckhart, all in the West End.

The show opens September 14 2005 (previews from September 6) and runs through October 22. For more information call (0)20 7359 4404.