Eyre Adapts & Directs Sartre's Novice

The cast for Sir Richard Eyre's new version of Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Mains Sales will feature Jamie Glover, Kenneth Cranham and Natasha Little. The Novice opens at the Almeida Theatre's home venue in Islington on 10 May, following previews from 4 May, and continues until 17 June.

Originally written in 1948, The Novice concerns a young man (Glover), his political enemy and hero (Cranham), who he has been ordered to assassinate, and his almost girlfriend (Little). It explores the means and ends required in politics and life.

Glover starred in the National's award-winning production of Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love when it transferred to the West End's Haymarket. Cranham is best remembered for the TV series Harvey Moon and has been seen recently on stage starring in the RSC's School for Scandal as well as another National production, Mikhail Bulgakov's Flight. Little is best known for her roles in TV's This Life and BBC1's Vanity Fair, in which she starred as Becky Sharp.

Eyre, who adapts and directs The Novice, was the acclaimed artistic director of the Royal National Theatre from 1988 to 1997. He made his Almeida directorial debut with David Hare's The Judas Kiss, starring Liam Neeson, in 1998. He has directed many stage classics (such as Ian Holm's King Lear) and world premieres of plays by some of today's foremost playwrights, including Hare, Tom Stoppard, Alan Bennett and Trevor Griffiths.

The Novice is designed by Anthony Ward with lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Scott Myers.

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