Ralph Fiennes Will Lead the Cast of STRAIGHT LINE CRAZY at the Bridge Theatre

Ralph Fiennes will lead the cast in the world premiere of David Hare's Straight Line Crazy to be directed by Nicholas Hytner at The Bridge. Performances are from 16 March - 18 June 2022 with opening night on 23 March 2022. Designs are by Bob Crowley. Straight Line Crazy reunites Fiennes, Hare and Hytner who previously collaborated on Beat the Devil at The Bridge in Autumn 2020. Further casting will be announced at a later date as well as further members of the production team. Priority booking for Straight Line Crazy opens today at 10am, with public booking opening at 10am on 12 October 2021.

Ralph Fiennes stars in David Hare's blazing account of the life of a man whose iron will exposed the weakness of democracy in the face of charismatic conviction. For forty uninterrupted years, Robert Moses was the most powerful man in New York. Though never elected to office, he manipulated those who were through a mix of guile, charm and intimidation. Motivated at first by a determination to improve the lives of New York City's workers, he created new parks, new bridges and 627 miles of expressway to connect the people to the great outdoors. But in the 1950s, groups of citizens at grass roots began to organize against his schemes and against the motor car, campaigning for a very different idea of what a city was and for what it should be.

Ralph Fiennes has enjoyed an extensive career in theatre, film and television as well as producing and directing film. He was last on stage at The Bridge in David Hare's Beat the Devil, directed by Nicholas Hytner, and recently toured in The Four Quartets which has a London run from 18 November 2021. Fiennes was previously directed by Hytner as Edmund in King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His many other theatre credits include Hamlet, Ivanov, Richard II and Coriolanus for the Almeida, Antony and Cleopatra, The Master Builder, God of Carnage and Faith Healer. His many film credits include Schindler's List, The English Patient, The Constant Gardener, The Grand Budapest Hotel and the roles of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films and M in Skyfall and Spectre. He has also directed three feature films - Coriolanus, The Invisible Woman and The White Crow. Fiennes' forthcoming films include The King's Man, The Dig, The Forgiven and No Time To Die.

David Hare is one of the UK's most prolific and acclaimed writers having written extensively for stage, television and film. He is the author of over 30 full length plays, his first, Slag, was produced in 1970. Hare is the winner of multiple international awards including a BAFTA for Licking Hitler, an Olivier award and a Critics' Circle award for Racing Demon, an Evening Standard Drama award for Pravda and a Tony award for Skylight. He is also a two-time Academy award nominee for The Hours and The Reader and was knighted in 1998.

For the Bridge Theatre Nicholas Hytner has directed Young Marx, Julius Caesar, Allelujah!, Alys, Always, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Two Ladies, Beat the Devil, The Shrine, Bed Among the Lentils, A Christmas Carol and Bach & Sons. In December he will direct Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage in a new stage adaptation by Bryony Lavery also at The Bridge. Previously he was Director of The National Theatre from 2003 to 2015.