Oscar award-winning, French film actress Juliette Binoche will make her British theatre debut in February as Ersilia Dei in the Almeida's production of Pirandellos Naked.

Binoche most recently appeared on stage as Nina in The Seagull at the Theatre de l'Odeon in Paris. She is best known for her work in films such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Damage, Three Colours Blue and most recently The English Patient for which she won an Oscar.

Naked, first performed in Rome in 1922, tells the story of a young woman hounded by the press after the death of a child entrusted to her care. She is offered refuge by a middle-aged novelist and gradually her story emerges. This rarely performed piece explores the complexities of guilt in a disturbing and erotic manner.

Naked has been newly translated from Italian by Nicholas Wright, whose versions of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author have been presented at the Royal National Theatre. The play is directed by the Almeida's artistic director Jonathan Kent. It runs from 18 February to 28 March 1998.

The Almeida continues its tradition of attracting top name film actors with this star-studded season. In addition to Binoches appearance, the theatres schedule to June also includes Liam Neeson's West End debut in David Hare's The Judas Kiss and Kevin Spacey in O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. --By Terri Paddock
What's On Stage, London