Kidman Makes London Début in Blue Room

Hollywood film star Nicole Kidman will make her London stage debut co-starring with veteran British stage actor Iain Glen in the Donmar Warehouse production of David Hare's newly adapted play The Blue Room. The play is scheduled for a seven-week engagement, opening 22 September 1998 (previews from 10 September) and running to 31 October.

The Blue Room is David Hare's totally modern take of Arthur Schnitzler's classic romantic text Reigen which later became La Ronde after the film version. First performed in 1912, the play caused a scandal with its bitter and comic assessment of love, depicted in a series of sexual liaisons. In the two-hander, Kidman and Glen will both play five different characters.

Following a successful stage career in her native Australia, Kidman became a film actress whose credits include Portrait of a Lady, To Die For (which won a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA nomination), Dead Calm and Flirting. She has recently completed filming on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock.

Iain Glen is one of the leading British stage actors of his generation, whose roles include the title role in Cameron Mackintosh's Martin Guerre (for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination), the lead in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry V (Evening Standard Award nomination), Hamlet in the Bristol Old Vic production (Ian Charleson Award) and Edgar in King Lear at the Royal Court.

Author Hare's many plays include Amy's View, which starred Dame Judi Dench in the acclaimed National Theatre production; The Judas Kiss, which starred Liam Neeson in an Almeida production at the West End's Playhouse; Skylight; Plenty and The Absence of War. From September, he will be starring in Via Dolorosa, a new semi-autobiographical work at the Royal Court.

The Blue Room is directed by Sam Mendes, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse. The production is designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting by Hugh Vanstone and music by Paddy Cuneen.

The Blue Room will be followed in November by the Donmar's Christmas show, a new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods. The musical uses children's fairy tales to create an adult allegory about desire and self-discovery. Into the Woods will be directed by Donmar associate director John Crowley. No casting details have yet been announced.

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