Photo Flash: Inside Rehearsal For BOTTICELLI IN THE FIRE at Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre presents the European premiere of Jordan Tannahill's Botticelli in the Fire which will be directed by Blanche McIntyre. This hot-blooded and seductive queering of Renaissance Italy questions how much of ourselves we are willing to sacrifice when society comes off the rails.

Renaissance Florence. Playboy Sandro Botticelli has it all: talent, fame, good looks. He also has the ear - and the wife - of Lorenzo de Medici, as well as the Renaissance's hottest young apprentice, Leonardo.

But whilst he is at work on his breakthrough commission, 'The Birth of Venus', Botticelli's devotion to pleasure and beauty is put to the ultimate test. As plague and dissent sweep through the city, the charismatic friar Girolamo Savonarola starts to stoke the fires against the liberal elite. Botticelli finds the life he knows breaking terrifyingly apart, forcing him to choose between love and survival.

Award-winning actor and performance artist Dickie Beau (Bohemian Rhapsody and Re-Member Me) stars as Sandro Botticelli. He is joined by Hiran Abeysekera, Stefan Adegbola, Adetomiwa Edun, Louise Gold, Sirine Saba & Howard Ward.