Helen Mirren And Mark Strong To Star In OEDIPUS West End

It was reported this evening that legendary actress, Helen Mirren, will star opposite Mark Strong in a new English-language adaptation of the Greek tragedy, Oedipus.

Sonia Friedman Productions will produce the new adaptation, penned by Robert Wicke, on London's West End with hopes for a Broadway production. Venue and dates are to be announced.

Sophocles' masterwork from 429 B.C. is considered by many to be one of the greatest plays ever written. Ambition, pride, fate, and free will are the ingredients of this tragedy of epic proportions.

Plague has struck the city of Thebes. Good King Oedipus sends for a prophet who determines that an unsolved murder is the cause of the gods' displeasure- and Oedipus is the killer.

What follows is an unsettling investigation of the past, which begins at a three-way crossroad and ends in a moment of horrifying self-discovery. It's the age-old tale of the dangers of hubris, told by one of history's original playwrights, and its theme continues to resonate with audiences today: you cannot change your fate.

Helen Mirren has won international recognition for her work on stage, screen and television. For her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen in 2006, she received an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress. She was also named Best Actress by virtually every critics organization from Los Angeles to London. In 2014 she was honored with the BAFTA Fellowship for her outstanding career in film. On television she played the title role in Elizabeth I for which she won Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards.

Mirren began her career in the role of Cleopatra at the National Youth Theatre. She then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she starred in such productions as Troilus and Cressida and Macbeth. In 1972, she joined renowned director Peter Brooks Theatre Company and toured the world. Since then her theatre work has spanned numerous productions in the West End, the Fringe, the RSC, The National Theatre and Broadway, including A Month in the Country, for which she received a Tony nomination, and The Dance of Death opposite Ian McKellen. Subsequent productions include Orpheus Descending at The Donmar Warehouse and Mourning Becomes Electra at the National, for which she received an Olivier Best Actress Award nomination. She returned to the National in 2009 in the title role of Racine Phedre directed by Nicholas Hytner. This made history when it became the first theatre production to be filmed for "NTLive" and was seen in cinemas throughout the world. In her most recent performance in 2013 in London's West End, she reprised her role of Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's The Audience, directed by Stephen Daldry, for which she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress. She reprised the role on Broadway for which she received the 2015 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.