Freema Agyeman: Doctor Who star to appear in Tony-winning God of Carnageon June 23, 2023 at 4:33 am

Doctor Who star Freema Agyeman will appear in a new stage production of the Tony and Olivier-winning dark comedy God of Carnage.

The actress is best known for her role as the companion Martha Jones in Doctor Who and recently starred opposite Lily Allen in TV comedy Dreamland.

She will play Veronique Vallon in the revival of Yasmina Reza’s play at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in September.

Agyeman told BBC News she was “beyond thrilled” to be returning to the stage.

God of Carnage tells the story of two sets of parents, who meet up after one 11-year-old knocks out his classmate’s two front teeth in a playground fight.

The boys’ parents meet up to have a civil conversation about their children’s altercation in a supposedly calm and rational way. But chaos ensues as the parents themselves descend into tantrums, name-calling and tears.

Agyeman said: “I’m happy to be staying in the genre of dark comedy post Dreamland – God of Carnage made me gasp and guffaw in equal measure.

“I look forward to performing in this play alongside the fantastic cast and am very excited to be working with director Nicholai La Barrie whose enthusiasm is infectious!”

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

God of Carnage premiered in the West End in 2008 before transferring to Broadway the following year.

The play went on to win both the Tony and Olivier Award for best comedy, as well as additional Tonys for best play and best actress for Marcia Gay Harden.

Agyeman’s screen credits include Torchwood, Silent Witness, Law and Order and The Carrie Diaries, as well as the most recent film in the Matrix franchise, Resurrections.

She will appear alongside Ariyon Bakare, Dinita Gohil and Martin Hutson in the Hammersmith production of God of Carnage, which runs from 1 to 30 September.

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

Director Nicholai La Barrie said: “God of Carnage pokes fun at wealth, power and money. It lifts the lid on civility which is immensely funny to watch. From the moment I read this play, I imagined it to be a reflection of the cosmopolitan cities that we live in.”

In a review of a 2018 revival of the play in Bath, the Guardian’s Arifa Akbar recalled how the show’s 2009 run in the West End “put in just enough laughs, balanced with middle-class menace and marital rage, for the play to earn its reputation as a savage comedy that tears away the veneer of respectability in modern bourgeois lives to expose the bigotry, anger and predations that lie beneath”.

Prior to God of Carnage, writer Reza made her name with the the 1994 play Art, which also won a string of Olivier and Tony Awards.