Photo Flash: In Rehearsal for WILD at Hampstead Theatre

'Let me tell you, now you're in the club, that it's important to keep a sense of humour, because things are going to get, now and for the rest of your life, extremely difficult.'

Hampstead Theatre presents the world premiere of Mike Bartlett's darkly comic new play WILD, directed by James Macdonald. WILD explores the unexpected, bewildering, and life-changing consequences of challenging the status quo at a global level. As the State grows more powerful because of technology, and technology grows more powerful because of the State, where do the self-appointed protectors of the rights of the citizen stand? Heroes? Or traitors?

Last week, Andrew was that guy with his girl lunching in KFC, discussing apartments and making plans for the future. Today he's in Moscow, in an undisclosed hotel room, on the run and at risk of assassination. Last week, a nobody. This week, America's Most Wanted: a man who humiliated his country with one touch of a button.

Mike Bartlett returns to Hampstead following his critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Chariots of Fire. His play King Charles III (Almeida Theatre) enjoyed a West End and Broadway transfer last year. The play won the Olivier Award for Best New Play and the South Bank Sky Arts Theatre Award 2015. Mike's other recent plays include Bull (Young Vic) Game (Almeida), Theatre UK Best New Play winner Love, Love, Love (Paines Plough/Royal Court), 13 (National Theatre) and Earthquakes In London (Headlong/National Theatre). Television credits include Doctor Foster (BBC).

James Macdonald returns to Hampstead Theatre following The Arrest of Ai Weiwei by Howard Brenton. WILD is his second collaboration with Bartlett following c*ck(Royal Court). James's many other theatre credits include Caryl Churchill's Escaped Alone, Cock, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, Blasted (Royal Court). Other recent work includes The Father (Theatre Royal Bath, Tricycle and West End), Exiles (National) and Glengarry Glen Ross (West End). He was Associate Director at the Royal Court 1992-2007.

Wild runs Friday 10 June - 16 July. Contact the Box Office at 020 7722 9301 or online at hampsteadtheatre.com

See the team in rehearsal below, photographed by Stephen Cummiskey