Theatre News

Matthew Fox Gets Lost in LaBute Forest, 14 Mar

As previously tipped, Lost heartthrob Matthew Fox will make his West End debut in the world premiere of In a Forest, Dark and Deep, written and directed by Neil LaBute. The new psychological thriller about sibling rivalry, in which British stage and screen star Olivia Williams will play his sister, will have a limited 12-week season at the Vaudeville Theatre from 14 March to 4 June 2011 (previews from 3 March).

On a dark and stormy night, all Bobby thought he was doing was helping his sister Betty clear out her cottage in the forest. But in this cabin of lies nothing is as it seems and the truth refuses to be packed away. What is she hiding? Does he really want to find out?


Fox is best known as Dr Jack Shephard from Lost, for which he was Emmy and Golden Globe nominated. His other credits include Party of Five on television and Speed Racer, Vantage Point, Smokin’ Aces and We Are Marshall on film.

Williams’ London stage credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hotel in Amsterdam, The Changeling and, most recently at the National, Happy Now?, while her myriad screen credits include, on TV, Dollhouse, Miss Austen Regrets, Agatha Christie, Emma and Friends, and the films The Ghost, An Education, The Heart of Me, Flashbacks of a Fool, Lucky Break, Born Romantic, Rushmore, The Postman and The Sixth Sense.

American dramatist Neil LaBute’s work is frequently mounted in the UK. In the West End, his credits include Some Girls, The Shape of Things and, most recently, Fat Pig, which won the 2009 Whatsonstage.com Award for Best New Comedy; at the Almeida Theatre, In a Dark Dark House, The Mercy Seat, The Distance from Here, Bash and The Shape of Things; at the Donmar Warehouse, This Is How It Goes; and at the Bush, The Furies, Helter Skelter, Land of the Dead, The War on Terror and Wrecks. Reasons to Be Pretty, seen on Broadway in 2009, has also been tipped for the West End next year.

In addition to his stage work, LaBute is well known for his screen writing and directing. His films include In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Wicker Man and adaptations of The Shape of Things and Bash.

In a Forest, Dark and Deep is designed by Soutra Gilmour, with lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Fergus O’Hare. It’s produced by Anna Waterhouse, Nica Burns, Max Weitzenhoffer, Jay Harris and Josephine Genetay.

Currently at the Vaudeville, Lindsay Posner’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, opened 10 November 2010 (previews from 4 November) and is currently booking through to 19 February 2011.

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