Dukakis Returns to London in Witness, 13 Feb

Hollywood film star Olympia Dukakis returns to the London stage next year in a new play by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Credible Witness opens at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 13 February 2001 (previews from 8 February) and continues to 10 March.

The award-winning actress made her British stage debut to critical acclaim last year in Martin Sherman's one-woman show Rose at the National's Cottesloe Theatre. Dukakis is well known for her roles in films such as Steel Magnolias and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar, but is also a veteran to the stage. She was a founder member and artistic director of Whole Theatre in New Jersey from 1971-1990, where she directed and appeared in many productions. Her Broadway credits include Social Security, Who's Who in Hell, The Aspern Papers, Abraham Cochrane and Night of the Iguana. She has received two OBIE Awards - for Bertolt Brecht's A Man's a Man and Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo.

In Credible Witness, a young man flees to a distant land and vanishes. His mother follows in pursuit, certain that she'll find him, but in the unfamiliar place, her certainties and confidence seem to crumble. Wertenbaker's script explores the state of contemporary Britain, the longing for identity and the despair of fragmentation.

Credible Witness is the sixth Wertenbaker play premiered at the Royal Court. Her previous award-winning plays there include Three Birds Alighting on a Field, The Grace of Mary Traverse and Our Country's Good, which was revived by former Court director Max Stafford-Clark and his Out of Joint company in 1998 for its tenth anniversary. Her other works include After Darwin (Hampstead), The Love of the Nightingale (RSC) and The Ash Girl (Birmingham Rep).

Credible Witness is directed by Sacha Wares, with design by Es Devlin and lighting by Paule Constable. In the cast with Dukakis are Anthony Barclay and Vincent Ebrahim.

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