Hannah Arterton To Star In ORIGINAL DEATH RABBIT At Jermyn Street Theatre

Jermyn Street Theatre announces today that Hannah Arterton will star in the stage premiere of Rose Heiney's Original Death Rabbit, the opening production in The PORTRAIT season. Hannah, who can currently be seen playing a leading role in Safe (Netflix/Canal+/Red Productions) and whose recent television credits include The Five (Sky/Red Productions) and Versailles (Canal+/BBC), will take the role of a young woman who becomes an internet sensation, just as the rest of her life falls apart.

We all have our comfort blankets and coping mechanisms. And if yours happens to be wearing a full-sized rabbit onesie (with ears), what's the problem? You're not bothering anyone. At least, not until you're photographed at the back of a child's funeral. Dressed as a rabbit. And the photo goes viral.

Original Death Rabbit, which runs from January 9 to February 9, is a tale of our time, that shines a light on one woman's struggle with the dark side of the internet. Rose Heiney's incisive comedy, now rewritten for the stage, was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2017.

Hannah Arterton's feature film debut was as a woman caught in a love triangle in the critically praised romantic musical Walking on Sunshine (Vertigo Films/2014). In the same year, she starred in the award winning Hide and Seek, a romantic drama about a polyamorous commune. Recent film credits include Burn Burn Burn (Rather Good Films/2015), Heretiks and Peripheral (dir Paul Hyatt/2017). Her stage credits include Stephen Poliakoff's My City at The Almeida.

Rose Heiney is a screenwriter, playwright and novelist. Her first play, Elephants, sold out at Hampstead Theatre. Television writing includes Miranda and Fresh Meat. Her first novel, The Days of Judy B, was nominated for The Times/South Bank Show Breakthrough Award. She is currently writing a film for Working Title and Studio Canal.

Hannah Joss was previously Baylis Assistant Director at the Old Vic Theatre and is currently a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre.

Jermyn Street Theatre's PORTRAIT SEASON, which runs from January to July 2019, also includes Trevor Nunn's world premiere production of Harley Granville Barker's Agnes Colander: An Attempt at Life, revised by Richard Nelson (12 February to 16 March), the new play Mary's Babies by Maud Dromgoole (20 March to 13 April), Howard Brenton's return adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie and new adaptation of Creditors (25 April to 1 June) and Pictures Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in an adaptation by Lucy Shaw (5 June to 6 July)

Jermyn Street Theatre is an art-house theatre in the heart of London's West End. The 70-seat studio opened in 1994, and has since won numerous awards and transferred many productions to the West End and Broadway. In summer 2017 Tom Littler became Artistic Director. Littler relaunched the venue as a producing house. Jermyn Street Theatre is a signatory to the Equity Fringe Agreement.

During the theatre's first year as a producing venue, it has staged world premieres of five full-length plays (including Howard Brenton's The Blinding Light), five one-act plays, two European premieres, and several revivals including the complete cycle of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8.30. Jermyn Street Theatre has also reported that its weekly sales are up by over 50%, and it has employed 28 female and 26 male actors.