Zoe Wanamaker-Led STEVIE Transfers to the Hampstead Tonight

Chichester Festival 2014 opened with a major revival of Hugh Whitemore's award-winning glimpse into the unconventional life of celebrated English poet and novelist Stevie Smith. STEVIE, starring Zoë Wanamaker, transfers to the Hampstead Theatre beginning tonight, March 6, and running through April 18, 2015. Jonathan Church will direct.

Nervous and droll, Stevie Smith spends her days as a private secretary at the Newnes Publishing Company and her evenings in the London suburbs eating Battenburg cake and Ginger Nuts with her beloved Aunt. All the time she is writing the piercing poetry and prose that will make her famous. In between there are diverting visits from a series of men and tussles with literary celebrity. All the while there is her greatest, often darkly comic struggle - to keep waving when she feels like drowning.

Stevie Smith wrote nine volumes of poetry. The first was titled A Good Time Was Had By All, which became a catchphrase referenced elsewhere in popular culture. Her most famous poem is Not Waving but Drowning. She also wrote three novels, Novel on Yellow Paper, Over the Frontier and The Holiday.

Zoë Wanamaker last appeared at Chichester in Electra (1997) winning an Olivier Award and Tony Award nomination following its transfer to the West End and Broadway. Other theatre credits include the West End productions Passion Play and All My Sons, as well as Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre). Screen credits include Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and My Family.

Hugh Whitemore's Chichester credits include A Marvellous Year for Plums (2012) and The Last Cigarette (2009), which he co-wrote with Simon Gray. Other credits include Pack of Lies, Breaking the Code and award-winning television drama, The Gathering Storm.

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