Mischa Barton to make UK stage debut in Double Indemnity tour

Mischa Barton will make her UK stage debut next year in a new adaptation of Double Indemnity, touring the UK and Ireland from February to May 2026.

Based on Cain’s 1943 novel, which inspired Billy Wilder’s celebrated film noir, Double Indemnity follows insurance salesman Walter Huff, whose encounter with the married Phyllis leads to a dangerous conspiracy involving lust, greed and murder. The new stage version is adapted by Tom Holloway and directed by Oscar Toeman. Further casting is to be announced.

Best known for The OC, Barton will play Phyllis Nirdlinger, the central role in James M Cain’s classic story of crime and deception.

The production opens at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre (5 to 7 February) before visiting the Theatre Royal in Nottingham (10 to 14 February), the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe (17 to 21 February), and Richmond Theatre (3 to 7 March).

It will then run at the Theatre Royal Brighton (10 to 14 March), the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin (24 to 28 March), the Palace Theatre in Southend (31 March to 4 April), and the Wycombe Swan Theatre (7 to 11 April). The tour continues to the Churchill Theatre in Bromley (21 to 25 April), the Opera House in Manchester (28 April to 2 May), and concludes at the New Theatre in Cardiff (5 to 9 May).