Damian Lewis, known for playing Nicholas Brody in the hit Showtime show Homeland, will be returning to the London stage for the first time in five years, performing in a revival of David Mamet's classic American Buffalo.
The 1975 Mamet play follows the scheming of three two-bit crooks in a Chicago junk shop who plot to steal a valuable rare coin. Speaking to the Evening Standard, Lewis called it “one of the great plays of the 20th century by one of the great living playwrights.” American Buffalo will be directed by Daniel Evans with Lewis being cast a foul-mouthed Walter “Teach” Cole.
It’s the first play Lewis will appear in since 2009, when he performed opposite Keira Knightley in Molière’s The Misanthrope, though he has a rich history on the stage: he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for five years in the 1990s, and appeared opposite Ralph Fiennes on Broadway for a production of Hamlet. In 2005, he performed in Five Gold Rings with Helen McCrory, who later became his wife.
The role of Teach has been played in past productions by such notable actors as Robert Duvall, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman.
The play comes after a vibrant period of screen work for Lewis. As well as the ongoing Homeland, for which he won a Golden Globe in 2013, he can next be seen in Werner Herzog’s anticipated new film Queen of the Desert, opposite Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Robert Pattinson. 2015 will also see the release of The Silent Storm, a drama with Andrea Riseborough, and John Le Carré adaptation Our Kind of Traitor.
American Buffalo will be staged at London's Wyndham Theatre from April 16 through June 27.
