Will Keen and Frances O'Connor will play the great modernist poet and his temperamental wife in an upcoming London revival of Michael Hastings' Tom and Viv. The production will begin previews at the Almeida on September 12th for a September 22nd opening. It will run through November 4th.
Lindsay Posner, the director of the current West End revival of
Fool for Love starring
Juliette Lewis, will helm
Tom & Viv. The play is set in 1915 Cambridge, as a brilliant young T.S. Eliot finds himself beguiled by the beautiful Vivienne Haigh-Wood, who becomes increasingly jealous and emotionally unstable at Eliot's rising success.
The production will also feature London theatre veterans Anna Carteret, Laura Elphinstone, Robert Portal and Benjamin Whitrow.
The play was made into 1994 film starring
Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson, Brian Gilbert directed.
O'Connor was seen in the West End revival of
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and in New York, has appeared in the MTC productions of
Much Ado About Nothing, The Lady from the Sea and
Lady Windemere's Fan. Her film credits include HBO's "Iron Jawed Angels,"
Windtalkers, The Importance of Being Earnest, Bedazzled and
Mansfield Park.
Keen's London theatre credits include
Five Gold Rings, The Changeling, Don Juan and
Man and Superman (both for Peter Hall),
Pericles and
The Coast of Utopia. His film and TV credits include "The Impressionists," "Holby City," "Midsomer Murders" and the HBO drama "Elizabeth I," in which he played Francis Bacon.
Tom & Viv will feature set and costume design by Giles Cadle, lighting design by Neil Austin, and music and sound design by Adam Cork.
