Jessica Chastain Sets West End Debut With ‘A Doll’s House’

Jessica Chastain is set to tread London’s boards for the very first time, having booked her West End theater debut.

The two-time Oscar nominee will lead an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House at the Playhouse Theatre. The play, being produced by the Jamie Lloyd Company and adapted by Frank McGuinness, will begin previews on June 10, 2020, and open June 18, running through September 5. 

“At the Jamie Lloyd Company, our aim is to work with the most exceptional actors in the world, offering them new and unexpected challenges,” said Jamie Lloyd, whose company is currently on Broadway with Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, starring Tom Hiddleston.

“Jessica Chastain is a gifted artist and is, of course, well known and respected for her extraordinary screen performances. However, I’m delighted she is now returning to the stage — where her career began — in this bold reappraisal of Ibsen’s great masterpiece.”

Chastain will play Nora Helmer, who becomes steadily more disillusioned with her stifling life as the dutiful 19th-century wife of a banker husband she comes to see as a hollow fraud, causing her to walk out on her family.

A Doll’s House marks the start of a new season directed by Lloyd at the Playhouse, which begins in November with Cyrano de Bergerac, being led by frequent collaborator James McAvoy. 

Chastain made her Broadway debut in 2012, starring in Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s The Heiress, with Dan Stevens and David Strathairn. Her upcoming screen roles include the international female spy thriller 355, with Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz and Diane Kruger; and Tate Taylor’s crime drama Eve, with Geena Davis and Colin Farrell.

Additional cast and creative team for A Doll’s House are to be announced.

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