Eve Best is to take on "the Tarantino of Jacobean tragedy" as she returns to the British theatre that proved her launchpad to success in the States.
The 40-year-old actress, who enjoyed a standout role as Wallis Simpson in The King's Speech, is packing her bags in New York for a return to her native west London and will play The Duchess of Malfi at the Old Vic.
She last appeared at the theatre opposite Kevin Spacey in 2006's A Moon for the Misbegotten. Eugene O'Neill's play then transferred to Broadway. Best fell in love with New York and it became her home when she won the role of Dr O'Hara in TV show Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco.
"It did mark a new chapter in my life, coming to work here," she said from the States. Best said playing the Duchess in John Webster's tragedy, first staged in 1614, was "extraordinary" and a "huge challenge".
She added: "I'm so longing to come back. It's a play about lots of blood, lots of killing, incestuous love, everybody dies in the end. Webster was the Tarantino of his age. What I love about the Duchess is she's a radiant, good person among the chaos and iniquity."
Best said she was "enormously grateful" to Spacey and the Old Vic for giving her the chance to appear in two plays: "I love the Old Vic so deeply, it's like a second home." An attempt to sell her Ladbroke Grove home while in the US fell through so she has somewhere to move back to. She has had brief trips to Britain, notably to play an acclaimed Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe this summer.
Best will learn whether she will be back for a fifth season of Nurse Jackie at about the time The Duchess of Malfi opens. It previews from March 17.
