Cate Blanchett and Emma Corrin pictured in rehearsals for London play
Cate Blanchett and Emma Corrin are pictured together in rehearsals for a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.
Oscar-winning Blanchett, who is returning to the London stage after six years, will play celebrated actress Arkadina in the Thomas Ostermeier-directed production at The Barbican Theatre.
The Crown star Corrin, 29, plays young actress Nina, while The Musketeers actor Tom Burke is Blanchett’s lover Trigorin, who becomes the object of Nina’s affection.
Photos from the rehearsal also show Sex Education star Tanya Reynolds in the role of Masha, Benidorm’s Paul Bazely as Dr Dorn, and Line Of Duty actor Paul Higgins as Shamrayev.
Also among the cast are Priyanga Burford, Zachary Hart, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Jason Watkins.
The play marks a return to the Barbican Theatre stage for Blanchett, 55, who last performed at the venue in Botho Strauss’s Big And Small (Gross Und Klein) in 2012.
Her last London theatre role was in a 2019 production of Martin Crimp’s When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, at the National Theatre.
The production also reunites Blanchett with Burke, 43, after they worked together on Steven Soderbergh-directed thriller Black Bag.
The play follows Arkadina as she arrives at her family’s country estate for the weekend and finds herself caught up in a storm of conflicting desires.
Her playwright son, Konstantin (Smit-McPhee), struggles to step out of her shadow as he pursues his own artistic ambitions, and her lover Trigorin becomes the object of affection of the aspiring young actress Nina.
In 2005 Blanchett won the supporting actress Oscar for her role in The Aviator.
The film star, also known for playing Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, won the leading actress gong for Blue Jasmine in 2014.
The production opens on March 6, with previews from February 26, and runs until April 5.
