Ralph Fiennes To Portray David Hare in New Play About COVID-19, A TALKING HEADS Return and More Planned for Bridge Theatre Season

Actor Ralph Fiennes has signed on to portray playwright David Hare in Beat the Devil, a new piece in which Hare unpacking his experience contracting and healing from the COVID-19 virus. Nicholas Hytner will direct.

The play is aiming for a two week run in August as part of a season of monologues at Bridge Theatre in London.

The play will also explore Hare's dissatisfaction with the handling of the virus by the goverment, as well as his concerns for the welfare of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom Hare says "still looks ill."

Fiennes has also signed on to star in Straight Line Crazy, another new work from Hair about an architect.

This season, Bridge is also expected to produce a work based on the hit BBC series Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. The series, which debuted in June, boasted an all-star cast including Jodie Comer, Lesley Manville, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Imelda Staunton. There is no word on which actors will return to their roles at the Bridge.

Their season will also feature new work from three black playwrights, An Evening With An Immigrant, by Inua Ellams, Yolanda Mercy's Quarter Life Crisis and Zodwa Nyoni's Nine Lives, as part of The Bridge monologue series.

The official season has not yet been confirmed.