Juliette Binoche returns to Barbican next year in 'explosive' Antigone

Juliette Binoche will return to the London stage when she stars in a new English language translation of Sophocles' Antigone at the Barbican.

Binoche, who won an Oscar for The English Patient in 1997, returns to the venue having appeared in Mademoiselle Julie two years ago.

Directed by Ivo van Hove, who is currently staging A View from the Bridge at the Young Vic, the production will use a new translation by award-winning poet Anne Carson.

Antigone will receive its world premiere at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in February 2015 followed by the UK premiere at the Barbican in March.

Ivo van Hove said: "While searching for a play for our first collaboration, Juliette and I very quickly agreed that Antigone would be the right artistic challenge for both of us.

"The play itself has the explosiveness of a nuclear bomb. It deals with all possible relationships: man against woman, political against ethical leadership, the laws of society against the right of the individual, family and its unbreakable blood ties."

Tickets for Antigone at the Barbican go on sale today to Barbican members and to the general public on 16 May 2014.