Donmar announces Anne-Marie Duff as Racine’s Berenice & Friel revival

Josie Rourke will direct a new version of Racine’s tragedy of unfulfilled passion Bérénice by Man Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst whose novels include The Swimming Pool Library and The Line of Beauty.

The title role will be played by Anne-Marie Duff who previously appeared at the Donmar in Days of Wine and Roses. Recent theatre work includes Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic and Saint Joan at the National Theatre for which she won Evening Standard & Critics’ Circle swards for Best Actress.

Bérénice will play at the Donmar from 2 October to 24 November 2012 (previews from 27 September).

Director Lyndsey Turner (Posh) makes her Donmar debut with Philadelphia Here I Come! in which Rory Keenan will play “Gar in Private” (the play features two versions of the character of Gar on stage at the one time: his private self and his public self).

In Friel’s breakthrough play Gar O’Donnell is leaving his family and the Ireland of his childhood for a new life in America. On his last night in town a series of visitations – real and imagined – force him to confront the choices he’s made and the promise of the future.

Rory Keenan‘s credits include The Kitchen at the National Theatre and The Big Fellah at the Lyric Hammersmith. He is joined by Dublin actor Paul Reid a Dream (Rough Magic Theatre Company). For television, hit work includes Raw, Frazeir Fraze, The Clinic and Love is the Drug; and for film, Boy Eats Girl. Rob Howell will design.

Philadelphia Here I Come! runs from 31 July to 22 September 2012 (previews from 26 July)
26 July – 22 September

The Donmar has also announced the full casting for The Physicists: Paul Bhattacharjee (Einstein), Joanna Brookes (Nurse Boll), Oliver Coopersmith (Wilhelm-Kaspar Möbius / Blocher), Ben Hardy (Adolf-Friedrich Möbius / Coroner), John Heffernan (Johann Wilhelm Möbius), Adam McNamara (Uwe Sievers), Miranda Raison (Nurse Monika/Lina Rose), John Ramm (Detective Inspector Richard Voss), Justin Salinger (Newton), Sophie Thompson (Dr Mathilde von Zahnd) and Obioma Ugoala (Fantam Murillo).