Oscar winner Brie Larson is to appear on stage in Brighton and London, making her West End debut, in Elektra.
Larson will play the anguished lead character in the revenge tragedy, adapted by poet Anne Carson and directed by Daniel Fish. It is the first major London staging of Sophocles’ play since Kristin Scott Thomas took the role in Frank McGuinness’s adaptation at the Old Vic in 2014.
Larson, who won the Oscar for best actress for Room in 2016 and recently starred in the Apple TV+ series Lessons in Chemistry, said: “I couldn’t be more excited to perform in this Greek drama, or in better company collaborating with Daniel Fish and Anne Carson. Storytelling has always been the way I organise life, feelings and experiences.” Larson studied drama at the American Conservatory theater in San Francisco and appeared in Our Town at the Williamstown Theatre festival in Massachusetts in 2010. Elektra will give her the most prominent stage role in a career that has included several Marvel movies.
Fish said that Carson’s translation – written in 1987, published in 2001 and now receiving its UK premiere – “explodes the question” of “what is ancient and what is contemporary” and that it presented him with a “thrilling challenge” as a director. He is best known for his production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! which won a Tony award in 2019 and was then performed at London’s Young Vic and in the West End.
Elektra runs at the Theatre Royal Brighton from 13-18 January and then starts an 11-week season at the Duke of York’s theatre in London on 24 January. Tickets go on sale on 2 October. It is produced by Empire Street Productions, whose West End hits include Slave Play and Prima Facie.