Kyra Sedgwick and David Strathairn will face off in Craig Lucas' world premiere Stranger, beginning performances at the Vineyard Theatre Sept. 26. How I Learned to Drive's Mark Brokaw directs.

Sedgwick's New York theatre work includes her star turn as Olivia in Lincoln Center's Twelfth Night, a Theatre World Award-winning performance in Ah, Wilderness!, Not Waving and Maids of Honour . In Oleanna, she garnered both the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and Drama-Logue Award. Sedgwick is also a film actress ("Phenomenon," "Something to Talk About") and is married to filmdom's Kevin Bacon (i.e., zero degrees of separation).

Most recently Off-Broadway in Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes, Strathairn's Broadway and Off-Broadway roles have featured Three Sisters, Hapgood, Fen and Blue Plate Special. Also a film actor, he can be seen in "L.A. Confidential," "Simon Birch," "Bob Roberts" and "Passion Fish."

Stranger kicks off the Vineyard season in Sept. In this new drama, two strangers meet on a plane trip and discover one of them has a dark secret. Strangers is Lucas' second drama to play the Vineyard; his The Dying Gaul had its world premiere there in 1998. His other work includes God's Heart, Prelude to a Kiss, "Longtime Companion" and "Reckless."

Stranger will open in mid-October. For ticket information on the Vineyard Theatre, call (212) 353-3366. The Vineyard is located at 108 E. 15th Street.

-- By Christine Ehren