Vanessa Redgrave in Eileen Atkins’ Spare Room???

Vanessa Redgrave has reportedly been asked by her friend and fellow actress Eileen Atkins to appear in a stage version of Helen Garner’s novella The Spare Room, tipped to open in late 2009 or early 2010. According the Daily Mail’s Baz Bamigboye, the role is being seen as a “part of the healing process” following the sudden death of Redgrave’s daughter Natasha Richardson earlier this year (See News, 19 Mar 2009).

Atkins is herself adapting Garner’s 2008 book about a woman who cares for a female friend dying of bowel cancer (the part earmarked for Redgrave). Although best known as an actress – whose most recent London stage credits include The Female of the Species, The Sea, There Came a Gypsy Riding, Honour and The Birthday Party – Atkins has previously penned the stage two-hander Vita and Virginia, based on the correspondence between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.