Thandie Newton to Star in West End Revival of Dorman's Death and the Maiden

By Mark Shenton
22 Jul 2011

Thandie Newton
Thandie Newton
Photo by Krissie Fullerton

Thandie Newton, best known for her film credits in such features as "Crash" (for which she won a BAFTA), "Beloved," "Mission Impossible II," "2012" and "Huge," will star in a new West End production of Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden.

It will begin performances Oct. 13 at the Comedy Theatre, prior to an official opening Oct. 24, for a run that is booking through Jan. 21 2012.

The production will be directed by the Royal Court's deputy artistic director Jeremy Herrin and designed by Peter McKintosh. Casting of the two male roles is still to be announced. The play received its world premiere at the Royal Court in 1991 in a production that starred Juliet Stevenson, subsequently transferring to the West End and playing for a year. It was also subsequently produced on Broadway, in a different production starring Glenn Close, and adapted into a film.

According to press materials, the play is "an account of confession and revenge set against the backdrop of a new democracy, emerging from a long period of dictatorship. Newton play Paulina Salas, a former political prisoner who suffered at the hands of a captor whose face she never saw, but whose voice and mannerisms she recalls with terrifying clarity. Years later, and as if by fate, she acts as judge and jury to a man she believes to have been her oppressor. She struggles to find a form of reconciliation for the experience that she and others, have endured."

Newton was most recently seen in "Huge," Ben Miller's directorial debut starring award-winning British actor Noel Clarke and Johnny Harris. She is currently filming "Good Deeds," written, starring and directed by Tyler Perry. Earlier this year, Newton also appeared in "Vanishing on 7th Street" directed by Brad Anderson in which she starred opposite Hayden Christensen and John Leguizamo. Other recent credits include "For Colored Girls," the adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem directed by Tyler Perry for LionsGate in which she starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington, Janet Jackson and Kimberly Elise; and the independent psychological thriller "The Retreat" opposite Cillian Murphy and Jamie Bell, directed by Carl Tibbetts.

Director Jeremy Herrin has directed Polly Stenham's plays That Face and Tusk Tusk, David Hare's The Vertical Hour, Michael Wynne's The Priory and Richard Bean's The Heretic, all for the Royal Court. He is currently represented by Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre with Eve Best and Charles Edwards.

The play is produced by CMP Limited.

To book tickets, which are on sale from July 25, contact the box office on 0844 871 76522, or visit www.deathandthemaidentheplay.com.