Rachel Weisz Will Return to the Stage in Revival of David Hare's PLENTY at The Public; David Leveaux to Direct

The Public Theater announced today that David Hare's PLENTY will receuve its first major New York revival as part of The Public's 2016-17 season. Directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux and featuring Academy and Olivier Award winner Rachel Weisz, the award-winning post-World War II drama about a former secret agent first premiered at The Public in 1982 and then transferred to Broadway in 1983 to receive a Tony nomination for Best Play.

"Plenty is one of the great plays of the post-war era, and certainly its critical production was one of the high points of The Public Theater's existence," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "Now, over 30 years later, Plenty is a story of optimism and disillusionment that carries an entirely new power. We are thrilled to be welcoming David Hare back to the theater that was his first American home."

One of the most celebrated plays in The Public's history, David Hare's PLENTY returns this fall in a riveting new production. This groundbreaking play is the story of Susan Traherne (Rachel Weisz), a fiercely intelligent British secret agent flown into France during the Second World War. Susan's experiences among her war-time colleagues and over the two decades that follow are distilled in powerful scenes in this endlessly layered work about a woman of remarkable bravery, who cannot find in peacetime the values and relationships she cherished in war.

When it first premiered at The Public in 1982, The New York Times called PLENTY, "an explosive theatrical vision of a world that was won and lost during and after World War II. A relentlessly gripping play" that "punctures our conscience."

The original production of PLENTY premiered at The Public in the Newman Theater, directed by David Hare and featured Edward Herrmann as "Raymond Brock," Kate Nelligan as "Susan Traherne," and Kelsey Grammer as "Codename Lazar." The production won the 1983 Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and the 1983 Drama League Awards for Distinguished Performance for Edward Herrmann and Kate Nelligan. The play transferred to Broadway in 1983, where it received a Tony nomination for Best Play, Best Actor in a Play for Edward Herrmann, and Best Featured Actor in a Play for George N. Marin. The play was later made into a film, directed by Fred Schepisi and featuring Meryl Streep, Tracey Ullman, Sting, Ian McKellen, Charles Dance, and John Gielgud.

Tickets to PLENTY will go on sale later in the year. Public Theater memberships are currently available for a tax-deductible donation of $65 and can be accessed by calling (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at Astor Place at 425 Lafayette Street; Public Theater members get early access to tickets before they go on sale to the general public as well as other benefits.

DAVID HARE (Playwright). In a millennial poll carried out to discover the 100 best plays of the 20th century, Hare had written five of them. His relationship with The Public Theater goes back to Joe Papp's production of his very first play SLAG in 1971. He has had 13 of his plays presented on Broadway, including the 1982 Public Theater production of Plenty with Kate Nelligan and Ed Herrmann, which he directed and which was subsequently filmed with Meryl Streep; The Secret Rapture with Blair Brown; Skylight with Michael Gambon and Lia Williams, and revived last season with Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy; Amy's View with Judi Dench; The Judas Kiss with Liam Neeson; The Blue Room with Nicole Kidman; Via Dolorosa (in which he also performed); and The Vertical Hour with Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy. In 2006, his play about the diplomatic process leading up to the Iraq war, Stuff Happens, was presented by The Public in the Newman Theater and for one-night-only at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, and in 2009 he performed his own monologues Berlin/Wall at The Public Theater. His many screenplays include Damage with Juliette Binoche, Jeremy Irons and Miranda Richardson; The Hours with Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman; and The Reader with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, the last two both directed by Stephen Daldry. His latest film, Denial, about the 2000 private prosecution of the American academic Deborah Lipstadt, has just finished shooting with Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Spall.

DAVID LEVEAUX (Director) recently directed the West End production of Closer at the Donmar Warehouse. He also just finished (Fall 2015) directing his first feature The Kaiser's Last Kiss. Previously, he directed the Broadway production of Romeo & Juliet starring Orlando Bloom, the musical Backbeat on the West End as well as Jenny Worton's stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Through A Glass Darkly for Atlantic Theater Company starring Carey Mulligan. Prior Broadway productions include Arcadia (Tony nomination, Best Revival); Cyrano de Bergerac; Tom Stoppard's Jumpers (Tony nominations, Outstanding Direction and Best Revival); The Real Thing (Tony nomination, Outstanding Direction and Tony Award Best Revival); Fiddler on the Roof (Tony nomination, Best Revival); Nine (Tony nomination, Outstanding Direction and Tony Award, Best Revival); The Glass Menagerie; Betrayal (Tony nomination, Best Revival); Electra (Tony nomination, Best Revival); Anna Christie (Tony nomination, Outstanding Direction and Tony Award, Best Revival); and A Moon for the Misbegotten (Tony nominations, Outstanding Direction and Best Revival). London theatre includes Arcadia, Jumpers, The Real Thing, The Late Middle Classes, Nine, Sinatra Live at the London Palladium, Electra, The Father, No Man's Land, Moonlight, Betrayal, The Distance From Here, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Romeo and Juliet, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Also, Rudolph (Vienna), Tales of Ballycumber and The Three Sisters (Abbey, Dublin); The Turn of the Screw (Scottish Opera); The Marriage of Figaro and Salome (English National Opera).

RACHEL WEISZ (Susan Traherne) received an Academy Award, SAG Award, and Golden Globe Award for The Constant Gardner. She recently appeared on Broadway in Mike Nichols' Betrayal. Her additional credits include the revival of A Streetcar Named Desire in the West End (Olivier Award); The Shape of Things, in London and New York, as well as the movie adaptation; Noel Coward's Design for Living; and Suddenly Last Summer. Her additional film credits include Youth; The Lobster; The Deep Blue Sea; Agora; The Brothers Bloom; My Blueberry Nights; The Lovely Bones; Definitely Maybe; The Whistleblower; Constantine; The Fountain; Runaway Jury; About a Boy; Enemy at the Gates; The Mummy; The Mummy Returns; The Bourne Legacy; Oz: The Great and Powerful; and David Hare's "Page Eight." Her upcoming films include Mick Jackson's Denial, Joshua Marston's Complete Unknown, Roger Michell's My Cousin Rachel, and James Marsh's Untitled Donald Crowhurst Project opposite Colin Firth. She is a producer on Radiator, directed by Tom Browne.