Sophie Okonedo and Ben Daniels will appear on stage as husband and wife in a new play by Joe Penhall, Haunted Child in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre from 2 December until 14 January (press night 8 December).
Haunted Child will be directed by Jeremy Herrin, designed by Bunny Christie, with lighting by Jean Kalman and sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph and original music by Stephen Warbeck.
‘We thought you were dead. In many ways, this is worse.’
A small boy is driving his mother to distraction - waking at night, hearing phantom noises and fixating on his absent father. When he glimpses a figure prowling the house at night, a shadow is cast which gradually strips away his childhood certainties.
This chilling and unsettling play asks demanding questions about the things we believe and their consequences.
Sophie Okonedo plays Julie. She most recently appeared at the Royal Court in Been So Long in 1998. She last appeared on stage with Ben Daniels in 900 Oneonta at the Old Vic and in the West End. On film, she has appeared in Dirty Pretty Things, Hotel Rwanda for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, Skin and Mrs Mandela. On television, she is currently appearing in an adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap on BBC4.
Ben Daniels plays Douglas. He most recently appeared on stage in Luise Miller at the Donmar His other credits include Therese Raquin, Three Sisters and All My Sons at the National Theatre, for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Joe Penhall’s last play at the Royal Court was Dumb Show in 2004. His debut play, Some Voices opened at the Royal Court in 1994 winning him the John Whiting Award. He later adapted it for film, premiering at Cannes in 2000. His other credits include Blue/Orange at the National Theatre, which transferred to the West End and for which he received Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards and Landscape with Weapons at the National Theatre. For film, he most recently adapted The Road by Cormac McCarthy. He also wrote the screenplay for Enduring Love and wrote the BBC2 detective series Moses Jones.
Jeremy Herrin is Associate Director of the Royal Court. His previous credits there include The Heretic, Kin, Spur of the Moment, Off the Endz, The Priory, Tusk Tusk, That Face and The Vertical Hour. He was formerly an Associate Director at Live Theatre Newcastle, where he specialised in directing new writing. His other credits include Marble (Abbey, Dublin), The Family Reunion (Donmar), Statement of Regret (NT), and the South African premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird. He is currently directing Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe and will direct David Hare’s South Downs at Chichester in September.
Haunted Child will run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from 2 Dec to 14 Jan 2012. Tickets available online at www.royalcourttheatre.com or from the Box Office on 020 7565 5000.
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