Because of film publicity appearances for The Bourne Identity, film star Matt Damon will be unable to play the last week of the run of This Is Our Youth, which marked Damon's London theatre debut.

Damon will be replaced for the last week (June 10-15) by Adam Rayner, a recent graduate from LAMDA, the drama school that seems to be producing a lot of striking young talent at the moment. Rayner, who will be the only British member of the cast, has also understudied Hayden Christensen.

Damon's American co-stars, Casey Affleck and Summer Phoenix (who are real-life lovers), will remain in the play for its final week.

This Is Our Youth, a story about three young people (two boys and a girl) from rich but dysfunctional families, and set in the early 1980's, has proved a huge hit with young audiences who may have been initially attracted by the film-star casts but have enjoyed Kenneth Lonergan's spiky, well-paced script.

—By Paul Webb Theatrenow