Hampstead Theatre's latest play — After The Gods, by Steve Waters and directed by Gemma Bodinetz — has its press night on June 18.

Waters has a long association with Hampstead Theatre: His English Journeys featured in Hampstead's first Arts For Everyone season in 1998.

After The Gods is set at an academic conference where the supposed focus — discussing the work of a French philosopher — gives way to revelations about his private life. As a result, his followers, already divided by professional rivalry and gender politics, are forced to rethink their beliefs, their reputations and their lives.

A darkly comic tale about academics behaving badly, After the Gods is directed by Gemma Bodinetz, whose credits include the lively but short-lived Pet Shop Boys' musical Closer to Heaven at the Arts, A Buyer's Market at the Bush, Dead Funny (national tour) and several plays at Hampstead, where she is an Associate Director: Hand in Hand, Chimps, Paper House and Snake.

The cast features Katie Blake, Anita Dhiri, Susan Engel, Gabrielle Lloyd, Conor Mullen, Joseph Mydell, Fred Pearson and Tom Smith, and the play is designed by Liz Ashcroft.

—By Paul Webb Theatrenow