Fraser Grace’s play, one of the highlights of the RSC’s New Work season, marks the directorial debut of South African-born actor Sir Antony Sher.

The drama is set during Zimbabwe’s 2002 election. The country’s dictator, President Mugabe, seeks help from a white psychiatrist to help rid himself of mental demons. Grace was inspired to write the play after reading a newspaper article that reported Mugabe was seeking treatment for being haunted by a spirit.

Grace’s previous work includes Perpetua - about the conflict between abortion clinics and pro-lifers - seen at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1999.

The cast of Breakfast With Mugabe includes Joseph Mydell as Mugabe, Noma Dumezweni (A Raisin in the Sun) as his wife Grace and David Rintoul as the psychiatrist.

Following his debut as a playwright with the South African Apartheid drama I.D., Sher went on to adapt Primo Levi’s Aushwitz memoir "If This Is a Man." The stage version, called Primo, in which Sher played the title role, was first seen at the National Theatre before transferring to New York’s Music Box Theatre in July 2005. For more on Breakfast With Mugabe call (0)870 890 1103.