Closer, Lyric Hammersmith

Twenty-five years after its premiere on the London stage, Patrick Marber's Olivier Award-winning, 1997 play Closer gets a ‘radical’ revival at Lyric Hammersmith in the hands of director Clare Lizzimore (Bull).

The play, about four Londoners whose lives become intensely embroiled as they date, lust after and fight each other, found a worldwide audience after it was adapted into a Hollywood film in 2004, boasting a genetically enviable cast in Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

Here, a quartet of rising screen stars leads the cast: Jack Farthing (Spencer, The Lost Daughter) plays Dan, Ella Hunt (Apocalypse, Dickinson) is Alice, Nina Toussaint-White (The Bodyguard) is Anna and Sam Troughton (Chernobyl) is Larry.

About the new production, writer Patrick Marber said: ‘For this 25th anniversary production of Closer, I’m most looking forward to Clare Lizzimore, a great director, taking the play by the scruff of the neck and making it resonate for her generation. I’m also really looking forward to seeing these four brilliant actors make this play their own. The story has amassed a cult following for the play and the film and I believe it struck a chord amongst so many audiences because Closer is at heart, a love story.’

Director Clare Lizzimore said: ‘Closer is a play that is both ferocious and tender – because so is love; and love is what it so bravely investigates. So what a feat, to be offered the chance to work on something so exquisitely premiered by its author (who was also its director) that is both heart-breaking, and breathtakingly funny.’