Following a sell-out run on Broadway, Aaron Sorkin’s new play based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird is coming to London. The production, which will star acclaimed actor Rhys Ifans, opens at the Gielgud Theatre in May.

Set in 1930’s Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird follows Jean Louise Finch, her brother Jeremy and their father Atticus, one of the most celebrated characters in modern literature. A successful lawyer, Atticus encourages kindness and empathy in his children, but is pushed to the limits of these qualities himself when he agrees to defend one of the town’s black residents, Tom Robinson, when he is accused of raping a white woman.

Harper Lee’s classic novel will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its publication in 2020, and has sold 45 million copies worldwide in that time. A highly-anticipated sequel, Go Set a Watchman, was released in 2015, shortly before Lee’s death. Sorkin’s adaptation has fast become the most successful American play in Broadway history, having yet to play to an empty seat and with a national tour of the US opening in Washington DC in August.

Previous to this, Sorkin has had many years of great success on stage and screen. He is perhaps best known as the creator and screenwriter of hit TV series The West Wing, and as the screenwriter for The Social Network, for which he received an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Writer’s Guild Award. He is also the writer-creator of The Newsroom and the play and Academy Award-winning film A Few Good Men.

Bartlett Sher directs the production. As well as having spent over ten years as Director of the Lincoln Centre Theatre, he has also headed acclaimed recent productions such as My Fair Lady and the Tony Award-winning South Pacific. In the UK, he has directed several productions for the English National Opera.

Rhys Ifans will lead the cast as the iconic character Atticus Finch. Ifans will be familiar to many from his film roles, including Spike in Notting Hill, The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man, and Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. His recent stage credits also include Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and Fool in King Lear for the Old Vic, and King Berenger in Exit the King for the National Theatre.

Further casting is to be announced.

An enduring exploration of childhood and racial inequality that still resonates today, To Kill a Mockingbird opens at the Gielgud Theatre on 21st May 2020 to 27th June 2020.

Purchase your tickets here