Following a sell-out run at the Royal Court, the play everyone is talking about is transferring to the West End.
“I wanted to put you bang in the picture. Apprise you of the difficulties. Because, in case you hadn’t noticed, he’s a human f*cking boobytrap. And now, guess what, surprise surprise, boom!”
A world-famous children’s author under threat. A battle of wills in the wake of scandal. And one chance to make amends…
John Lithgow will reprise his role as Roald Dahl in the west end transfer of Mark Rosenblatt's critically acclaimed play.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, The Royal Court's production of Giant will open at the West End's Harold Pinter Theatre in Spring 2025.
We may admire Stone’s flinty resolve (American actress Aya Cash taking over, capably, from Romola Garai), but she’s still inclined to separate the artist from his art in deference to her learning disabled son’s reading needs, her stance complicated further by Dahl’s compassion for the boy, and for her. And Lithgow’s multi-faceted portrait keeps our sympathies shifting to the unpalatable end: his insouciance and incorrigible wit beguiling, his humanitarian concern persuasive, his prejudice bound up with his self-sabotaging personality type. Rachael Stirling remains pitch-perfect as his warily, almost wearily supportive partner Felicity, with Tessa Bonham Jones and Richard Hope completing the cast as the astute house-help and bluntly sage handyman.
Nicholas Hytner’s immaculately paced production arrives at the Harold Pinter Theatre trailing a clutch of Olivier awards, and with the American actor John Lithgow reprising his incandescent portrayal of children’s author Roald Dahl as an unforgettable mixture of wit, charm, bully and unfiltered antisemite. With the war in Gaza still making news, Rosenblatt’s study could hardly be more timely. If the TV drama Adolescence did a solid job of catching the zeitgeist, Giant offers an even more incisive example of writing that holds a mirror up to the way we live now.
| 2012 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Production Off-Broadway |
| West End |
West End |
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| 2025 | West End |
West End |
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