Kit Harington returning to West End for UK premiere of Slave Play

The play caused a sensation in the US and is now coming to the West End
Kit Harington
Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is returning to the West End to star in a sexually-explicit play about racism and relationships.

The actor and Olivia Washington - the daughter of Hollywood legend Denzel Washington - will star as one of three multi-racial couples in the London production of the critically-acclaimed Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris.

Also in the cast appearing at the Noel Coward Theatre from June 29 is Aaron Heffernan from cult comedy Brassic and several members of the original Broadway cast.

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Jeremy O. Harris
Dave Benett

Harris said he did not take the transfer to the West End “lightly” and paid tribute to other playwrights who brought “rare plays by a black author” to the heart of the capital’s theatreland.

He said: “I’m incredibly grateful for the trails blazed by the myriad black British writers recently who have broken ground for black writers and audiences on the West End like Arinzé Kene, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Tyrell Williams, Ryan Calais Cameron, and Natasha Gordon.

“I hope that with this production even more work by writers of colour will find support on our largest commercial stages.”

The show, which runs to September 17, will have two “black out nights” when th show will be staged for “an all-Black-identifying audience” - something the producers did on Broadway in 2019.

Harris said when he wrote the show, which set a new record when it was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, he only expected it to be performed at his university theatre.

He added: “Yet five years later we have been Off-Broadway, on Broadway, and all over America. And now London.

“Many of the people from the very first reading in my grad school flat have been with the play ever since and are returning to do it in London.

“It is one of the great honours and gifts of my life that it has made it here.”

Every Wednesday 30 tickets priced at £1 and above will be sold.

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