The Misanthrope

Hollywood star Sandra Oh is a very good get indeed for the National Theatre, as she takes on the title role in NT boss Indhu Rubasingham’s revival of Moliére’s timeless comedy The Misanthrope. The adaptation is by the veteran playwright Martin Crimp, in a latest iteration of a version that first debuted in 1996. Previously the title charcter was Alceste, a male playwright who alienates himself from wider society after he starts to tell the truth about how corrupt and venal it all is – Damian Lewis took it on in the 2009 revival, opposite Kiera Knightley as rising starlet Jennifer. All we really know about Crimp’s latest update is that Oh will here play a novelist named Alice, with Paul Chahidi and Abigail Cruttenden co-starring opposite the Killing Eve star.