Further casting has been revealed for the upcoming European premiere of Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, beginning at London's Marylebone Theatre October 4 and continuing through November 23.
As previously announced, Joshua Malina (West Wing, Scandal) will make his London stage debut reprising his performance as Phil from the work's 2022 world premiere at The Old Globe. Newly joining him will be Caroline Catz (Doc martin) as Debbie, Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Nachtland) as Shoshana, Simon Yadoo (Love Labour's Lost) as Yerucham, and Gabriel Howell (The Unfriend) as Trevor.
Tony winner Patrick Marber (Leopoldstadt) is directing the work, adapted from Englander's Pulitzer finalist short story of the same name. The play follows two high school friends who, after years apart, reunite at a dinner party with their respective husbands that goes off the rails. Described in press notes as a "serious new comedy," the play covers everything from identity, politics, Gaza and Israel, the Holocaust, and more.
"I first wrote What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank as a short story for the New Yorker Magazine in 2011, and I’ve been rewriting it in different ways ever since," said Englander in an earlier statement. "I think my obsession with the piece is probably because the setup is something I see as an increasingly rare occurrence in our ever more polarized and personalized-algorithm driven lives. That is, two best friends, now on opposite ends of political, religious, and economic spectrums come together to talk and laugh and cry it all out—and to see if any of the love they’ve long felt for each other can survive."
The work made its world premiere at The Old Globe in 2022, but the London production will be a new staging—Marber did not direct the earlier run. Marylebone's production will feature scenic and costume design by Anna Fleischle and sound design by David Gregory, with additional casting and creative team members to be announced in the coming weeks.
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