Freema Agyeman: Doctor Who star to appear in Tony-winning God of Carnage

Doctor Who prima Freema Agyeman volition look successful a caller signifier accumulation of the Tony and Olivier-winning acheronian drama God of Carnage.

The histrion is champion known for her relation arsenic the companion Martha Jones successful Doctor Who and precocious starred other Lily Allen successful TV drama Dreamland.

She volition play Veronique Vallon successful the revival of Yasmina Reza's play astatine the Lyric Hammersmith theatre successful September.

Agyeman told BBC News she was "beyond thrilled" to beryllium returning to the stage.

God of Carnage tells the communicative of 2 sets of parents, who conscionable up aft 1 11-year-old knocks retired his classmate's 2 beforehand teeth successful a playground fight.

The boys' parents conscionable up to person a civilian speech astir their children's altercation successful a supposedly calm and rational way. But chaos ensues arsenic the parents themselves descend into tantrums, name-calling and tears.

Agyeman said: "I'm blessed to beryllium staying successful the genre of acheronian drama station Dreamland - God of Carnage made maine gasp and guffaw successful adjacent measure.

"I look guardant to performing successful this play alongside the fantastic formed and americium precise excited to beryllium moving with manager Nicholai La Barrie whose enthusiasm is infectious!"

Reza's play was translated for English-speaking audiences by Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar successful 2021 for champion adapted screenplay for The Father.

God of Carnage premiered successful the West End successful 2008 earlier transferring to Broadway the pursuing year.

The play went connected to triumph some the Tony and Olivier Award for champion comedy, arsenic good arsenic further Tonys for champion play and champion histrion for Marcia Gay Harden.

Agyeman's surface credits see Torchwood, Silent Witness, Law and Order and The Carrie Diaries, arsenic good arsenic the astir caller movie successful the Matrix franchise, Resurrections.

She volition look alongside Ariyon Bakare, Dinita Gohil and Martin Hutson successful the Hammersmith accumulation of God of Carnage, which runs from 1 to 30 September.

Agyman said the Lyric had an "incredible past and tradition" and praised its "consistently solid, inclusive and high-calibre work".

Director Nicholai La Barrie said: "God of Carnage pokes amusive astatine wealth, powerfulness and money. It lifts the lid connected civility which is immensely comic to watch. From the infinitesimal I work this play, I imagined it to beryllium a reflection of the cosmopolitan cities that we unrecorded in."

In a reappraisal of a 2018 revival of the play successful Bath, the Guardian's Arifa Akbar recalled however the show's 2009 tally successful the West End "put successful conscionable capable laughs, balanced with middle-class menace and marital rage, for the play to gain its estimation arsenic a savage drama that tears distant the veneer of respectability successful modern bourgeois lives to exposure the bigotry, choler and predations that prevarication beneath".

Prior to God of Carnage, writer Reza made her sanction with the the 1994 play Art, which besides won a drawstring of Olivier and Tony Awards.