Donmar s Passion Play Transfers to Comedy

The Donmar Warehouse's revival of Peter Nichols Passion Play, currently playing to sell-out houses at the 250-seat theatre, will transfer to a larger West End venue this month. The tragi-comedy, which finishes its run at the Donmar on 10 June, opens at the Comedy Theatre on 21 June 2000.

After 25 years of marriage, a successful man still in love with his wife is attracted to a younger and sexually voracious woman whose temptations he's unable to resist. As trust collapses, husband and wife Eleanor and James are left floundering and exposed.

The production currently stars Cherie Lunghi and James Laurenson as the married couple, with Cheryl Campbell and Martin Jarvis playing their argumentative alter-egos. At the Comedy, Jarvis will be replaced by Nick Henson. Nicola Walker and Gillian Barge will also transfer with the rest of the cast to the new venue.

Lunghi, best known recently for her role in the Kenco coffee adverts, has appeared in numerous stage roles for the RSC and the National, including the latter's production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Laurenson most recently played Claudius in the Almeida's production of Hamlet, both in London and on Broadway. Campbell starred in The Seagull at the Donmar in 1997 while Henson most recently appeared in Michael Frayn's Alarms and Excursions at the Gielgud.

Passion Play is directed by Michael Grandage, who also directed the Donmar's acclaimed revival of CP Taylor's Good, starring Charles Dance, last year. Nichols' other plays include A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Privates on Parade. Passion Play won the 1981 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play.

Passion Play is the second Donmar revival of a 1980s infidelity play to transfer to the West End in this year. Tom Stoppard's 1982 play, The Real Thing, starring Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, transferred to the Albery Theatre before moving on to Broadway.

Currently at the Comedy, Peggy for You, starring Maureen Lipman, closes on 10 June.

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