Keira Knightly is returning to the West End for the first time in 15 years.
Keira Knightley is returning to the West End
The Pirates of the Caribbean star, whose last London theatre appearance came in the 2011 revival of The Children’s Hour, is set to star in The Lives of Others later this year.
Speaking to Deadline, producer Sonia Friedman confirmed the news, revealing that she was almost instantly on board when Keira’s friend, and the show’s director, Robert Icke sent her the script.
Sonia said: “She read it and within 24 hours she was in.”
The producer, known for her work on the likes of Paddington: The Musical and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, thinks it’s a perfect theatre comeback for Keira.
She added: “It’s a remarkable role for her. And she’s not been on stage for a very long time in London.”
Keira, 41, has appeared on Broadway more recently, but even that performance – her debut in an adaptation of Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin at Studio 54 – was a decade ago.
The Lives of Others is adapted from the Oscar-winning German film of the same name, which is a love story wrapped in a psychological surveillance thriller set in 1984 East Berlin.
The show will star Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson as playwright Georg Dreyman, with Keira portraying his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland.
Game of Thrones actor Stephen Dillane has been cast as Stasi interrogator Gerd Wieslter, who has been tasked with bugging their apartment.
The show is set to run at London’s Adelphia Theatre from October 14 through January 9.
Keira recently revealed she feels “fortunate” to have survived her early experiences of fame, having risen to fame in the likes of 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham, while her life and her career could’ve easily gone in another direction.
Speaking to The Independent, she recently explained: “The adult me is very aware that people can go through very difficult periods in their life, and they do not come out of it with a very successful career and a very healthy bank balance. I feel incredibly fortunate.”
Keira acknowledged that she’s now achieved a level of respect from the public that didn’t exist during her teenage years.
The she added: “I think being a 40-year-old woman, people have a different response to you than when you’re 18. That’s just the way the world is.
“When you’re 18, you haven’t got much work, you’re all image. When you have a career that’s 25 years long, and you’ve got enough stuff to be like, ‘Well, that’s a body of work; some worked, some didn’t’ – people can look, and go, ‘That’s a career.’”
