Mark Strong and Lesley Manville to Star in Robert Icke's OEDIPUS in the West End

Oedipus, a new adaptation created by Robert Icke after Sophocles, is set to have a West End run. Icke directs Mark Strong (OEDIPUS) and Lesley Manville (JOCASTA). The strictly limited run at Wyndham’s Theatre previews from Friday 4 October 2024.

 Icke’s production was originally presented in Dutch at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and at the Edinburgh International Festival.

 Further casting and on-sale dates to be announced. Individuals can sign up for priority booking here: Oedipustheplay.com.

Sonia Friedman Productions present

Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in

OEDIPUS

Created by Robert Icke, after Sophocles

Directed by Robert Icke

Wyndham’s Theatre

Behind every great man is a great woman. 

Election night. The polls predict a landslide victory. Everything is about to change.

Starring the internationally renowned, multi award-winning Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, Sophocles’ epic tragedy is transformed into an essential, explosive human thriller. 

After his revelatory Oresteia, visionary director Robert Icke (1984, The Doctor) reimagines another Ancient Greek tragedy, bringing the secrets of the past bursting into the present.

Following hit runs at International Theatre Amsterdam and the Edinburgh Festival, Oedipus comes to comes to Wyndham’s Theatre for a strictly limited season from 4 October.

 

 

Mark Strong (OEDIPUS)

Multi-award-winning actor Mark Strong returns to the stage. He previously appeared in A View from the Bridge (Young Vic, West End and Broadway - Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play and Tony Award nomination);  The Red Barn, Closer, Death of a Salesman, Murmuring  Judges, Fuente Ovejuna, Napoli Milionaria, King Lear and Richard III (National Theatre); Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse – Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); Speed the Plow (New Ambassadors Theatre); The Iceman Cometh (Almeida Theatre); The Thickness of Skin and The Treatment (Royal Court Theatre); Hess is Dead, The Plantagenets and The Man Who Came To Dinner (RSC).

 

His television credits include Temple (also series Executive Producer); Deep State; Low Winter Sun; The Long Firm (Broadcast Guild Award for Best Actor and BAFTA nomination); Prime Suspect; Fields of Gold; The Jury; Anna Karenina; Our Friends in the North and the forthcoming Dune: Prophecy (HBO Max).

 

An acclaimed film actor, he recently appeared in The Critic with Ian McKellen; Dead Shot with Felicity Jones; Nocebo with Eva Green; Murder Mystery 2 with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston (Netflix) and will next appear on screen in various projects including The End We Start From with Jodie Comer and Benedict Cumberbatch; Shadow Force opposite Omar Sy and Kerry Washington and Atlas opposite Jennifer Lopez.

 

His other film credits include Todd Field’s Tar with Cate Blanchett; Sam Mendes’ 1917; Miss Sloane with Jessica Chastain; Cruella alongside Emma Stone; The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley; The Kingsman films with Taron Egerton and Colin Firth; Before I Go To Sleep with Nicole Kidman; Thomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman; Peter Weir’s The Way Back; John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard; Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood with Russell Crowe; Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law; Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern; The Young Victoria opposite Emily Blunt; Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty; Danny Boyle’s Sunshine; Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana with George Clooney; Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist and Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All About Love.

 

Lesley Manville (JOCASTA)

Lesley’s notable television credits include Princess Margaret in award-winning drama, The Crown, for Netflix, BBC’s drama Sherwood (for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the 2023 BAFTAs), which is returning for a second series. Mum (RTS Best Female Comedy Performance and two BAFTA nominations for Best Female Performance in a Comedy), Magpie Murders for BBC and PBS, similarly set to return for a second series titled Moonflower Murders. Lesley can currently be seen in Citadel for Prime Video alongside Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci. Upcoming roles include Alfonso Cuaron's thriller series,Disclaimer. Lesley’s further TV credits include I Am Maria for BBC, River (BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress), Save Me Too, Talking Heads, World On Fireand Harlots.

 

Her roles in film include Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread (Academy Award nomination for Best Performance by An Actress in a Supporting Role, BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress), the titular role as Mrs Harris in Mrs Harris Goes To Paris for Focus Features (which earnt Lesley a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress) Let Him Go, Ordinary Love, Misbehaviour. In addition, Lesley is also known for her collaboration with Mike Leigh in projects such as, Another Year (NBR Best Actress Award, Critics' Circle Best Actress Award and BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress), and All Or Nothing (Critics' Circle Best Actress Award), Topsy-Turvy, High Hopes and Grown Ups, to name a few. Upcoming projects include Sam Taylor-Johnson’s upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic, Back To Black, Kasia Adamik’s upcoming Cold War feature, Winter Of The Crow, Cold Storage starring opposite Liam Neeson- a thriller about a spiralling virus and Luca Guadagnino’s feature film, Queer opposite Daniel Craig.

 

On stage, Lesley’s theatre credits include Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress), Ghosts (Olivier Award for Best Actress and Critics Circle Best Actress Award), Grief (Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress), Top Girls and The Visit. Further credits include Six Degrees Of Separation and All About My Mother at the Old Vic Theatre and Some Girls and The Cherry Orchard in the West End.

 

For her contributions to Drama and Charity, Lesley was honoured with a CBE in 2021.

 Robert Icke

Robert Icke is an award-winning writer and director, working in theatre and on screen.

 

His recent productions include Judas, Children of Nora, and Oedipus at International Theater Amsterdam, where until 2023 he was Ibsen Artist in Residence. His adaptation of Animal Farm played an extensive national tour in 2022 and is slated for a London transfer. His monologue condensation of Enemy of the People starred Ann Dowd at Park Avenue Armory and was one of the first new pieces of theatre to play in New York post the shutdown. He is directing Ian McKellen in Player Kings at the Noël Coward Theatre, 1 April – 22 June 2024, previewing in Wimbledon and Manchester from March.

 

In six years at the Almeida, five of his productions transferred to the West End, and four to New York. These included his adaptations of The Wild Duck, Mary Stuart(also West End and National tour), Uncle Vanya, Oresteia (also West End; Schauspiel Stuttgart; Park Avenue Armory), and 1984 (co-created with Duncan MacMillan, also Broadway; West End; national and international tours). As a director, his productions included Hamlet (also West End; Park Avenue Armory; and broadcast on BBC2); The Fever and Mr Burns. His final production at the Almeida was The Doctor, which played last summer at Park Avenue Armory, in the West End in 2022, and remains in repertoire at both the Burgtheater in Vienna and Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, as well as in numerous new productions across the globe.

 

His awards include two Evening Standard ‘Best Director’ Awards; the Critics' Circle Award, the Kurt Hübner Award (for his debut production in Germany); and the Olivier Award for ‘Best Director’, of which he was the youngest ever winner. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

 

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