PRESS RELEASE – 28 November 2019 IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE T: @MockingbirdUK I: @Mockingbird_ldn F: @ToKillAMockingbirdWestEnd www.tokillamockingbird.co.uk | #AllRise RHYS IFANS IS ATTICUS FINCH IN HARPER LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD A NEW PLAY BY AARON SORKIN DIRECTED BY BARTLETT SHER TICKETS AVAILABLE ON GENERAL SALE FROM 10.00AM ON FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2019 Producers Scott Rudin, Barry Diller and Sonia Friedman Productions today announced that Rhys Ifans will play the iconic role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, the new play by Aaron Sorkin based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, directed by Bartlett Sher, which will open in London’s West End in 2020. Further casting will be announced. Rhys Ifans has just completed a main stage run of On Bear Ridge at the Royal Court Theatre playing John Daniel. On stage, he recently played the title role in Eugene Ionesco’s Exit the King (National Theatre), The Fool in King Lear (Old Vic) and caused a sensation in the one-man show Protest Song (National Theatre). He also starred as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Old Vic). Rhys’ extensive film work includes Official Secrets, Snowden, Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth, Greenberg directed by Noah Baumbach, Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter, Mr Nice, Anonymous, The Amazing Spider-Man, Enduring Love and, of course, Richard Curtis' Notting Hill. He won a BAFTA for his performance as comedian Peter Cook in Not Only But Always and will next appear in the new comedy drama film Misbehaviour, directed by Philippa Lowethorpe, and in Matthew Vaughn’s latest film Kingsman: The Great Game. To Kill a Mockingbird will preview at London’s Gielgud Theatre from 21 May 2020 with Opening Night on 11 June 2020. Tickets go on general sale from 10.00am on Friday 6 December 2019. Sign up at www.tokillamockingbird.co.uk for updates and priority access to tickets. The Box Office number is 0844 482 5130. To Kill a Mockingbird is partnering with TodayTix for the All Rise Access initiative where over 500 tickets a week will be available at £15. Details will be announced in 2020. Harper Lee’s enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. 2020 will mark the 60th anniversary of its publication. Set in Alabama in 1934, To Kill a Mockingbird centres on one of the most venerated characters in American literature, the small-town lawyer Atticus Finch. The cast of characters includes Atticus’s daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker Calpurnia, their visiting friend Dill, a mysterious neighbour the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley, and the other indelible residents of Maycomb, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird, celebrating one year on Broadway last month, has not played to a single empty seat and holds the benchmark of having become the most successful American play in Broadway history. A national tour of the United States opens at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC in August 2020. To Kill a Mockingbird is designed by Miriam Buether, with costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Jennifer Tipton, sound by Scott Lehrer and an original score by Adam Guettel. -ENDS- For further information please contact The Corner Shop PR on 020 7831 7657 Maisie Lawrence | Kate Hassell | Ryan Petersen Listings TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Aaron Sorkin Based on the book by Harper Lee Directed by Bartlett Sher Set Designer – Miriam Buether Costume Designer – Ann Roth Lighting Designer – Jennifer Tipton Sound Designer – Scott Lehrer Composer – Adam Guettel Gielgud Theatre Shaftesbury Ave, Soho, London W1D 6AR Box Office: 0844 482 5130 First Preview: Thursday 21 May 2020 Opening Night: Thursday 11 June 2020 www.tokillamockingbird.co.uk Notes to Editors Aaron Sorkin is a celebrated writer, producer and director known for his multi-award-winning work across stage and screen. Sorkin is probably best known as the creator and screenwriter of the Emmy Award-winning hit TV series The West Wing and films such as Steve Jobs and The Social Network for which he received an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Writer’s Guild Award for best screenplay. He is the writer-creator of The Newsroom and the Academy Award-winning 1992 film A Few Good Men, which he adapted from his 1989 Broadway play. His other credits as a playwright include Making Movies and The Farnsworth Invention. Bartlett Sher is the multi-award-winning Director of the Lincoln Center Theater in New York, a post he has held for over a decade. His critically acclaimed stage productions include the Tony Award- winning South Pacific and Oslo, My Fair Lady and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. He has also worked extensively in opera, staging productions at English National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera and New York City Opera. Rhys Ifans’ (Atticus Finch) theatre credits include a critically acclaimed performance in On Bear Ridge (Royal Court Theatre), Exit the King (National Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Old Vic), and King Lear (National Theatre). Further stage credits include Don Juan in Soho, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Badfinger (Donmar Warehouse), Volpone, Under Milk Wood (National Theatre), Beautiful Thing (Duke of York’s Theatre), Thyestes (Royal Court Theatre) and Poison Pen (Royal Exchange Theatre). His film credits include Notting Hill, Dominion, Official Secrets, Snowden, Under Milk Wood, Len and Company, The Five-Year Engagement, Serena, Another Me, The Amazing Spider Man, Anonymous, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Greenberg, The Boat That Rocked, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Hannibal Rising: Once Upon A Time in the Midlands, Human Nature, Hotel, The Shipping News, The Replacement. He is soon to appear in the historical comedy drama Misbehaviour and as Rasputin in Kingsman: The Great Game. .