Kristin Scott Thomas returns to the West End in a gripping new production of THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Anton Chekhov’s poignant and piercing tragicomedy about a family on the brink of irreversible change.
Playing at Harold Pinter Theatre from 3 Oct 2026 – 9 Jan 2027.
The Cast
Stephen Mangan (The Split, Episodes, The Birthday Party) joins the previously announced BAFTA and Olivier Award-winning Kristin Scott Thomas (Electra, Slow Horses, Four Weddings and a Funeral) in The Cherry Orchard as Lopakhin, opposite Scott Thomas’ Lyubov Ranevskaya.
They will both be joined by further cast members; Ruby Bentall (Industry) as Sharlotta, Megan Cusack(Playboy of the Western World) as Dunyasha, Karl Johnson (King Lear) as Firs, Noof Ousellam (Macbeth)as Yasha, Nadia Parkes (Kidnapped) as Anya, Jack Riddiford (Stereophonic) as Trofimov, Vinette Robinson (Emilia) as Varya, Shubham Saraf (An Enemy of the People) as Yepikhodov and Peter Wight (Three Sisters) as Gaev.
Complete casting will be announced in due course.
Ian Rickson and Kristin Scott Thomas reunite to bring another Chekhov classic to the stage, with Scott Thomas having previously played Arkadian in Rickson’s acclaimed production of The Seagull which ran both in London and on Broadway; a role for which Kristin won the Olivier Award for Best Actress.
What is The Cherry Orchard about
The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov’s final masterpiece, captures a world in delicate and inevitable transition, and remains as timeless and resonant as ever.
“Without the cherry orchard, life has no meaning to me”
When Lyubov Ranevskaya returns to her childhood estate after years abroad, she finds her family home and beloved cherry orchard under threat.
As old loyalties falter and new ambitions rise, a world of privilege begins to crumble. Can Lyubov embrace the future, or will the pull of memory prove impossible to escape?
The Creative Team
Director: Ian Rickson; Set Designer: Chloe Lamford; Lighting Designer: Bruno Poet; Movement Director: Shelley Maxwell and Casting Director: Amy Ball CDG.
Accessibility Performances
Audio Described Performance
Saturday 31 Oct 2026 14:30
Signed Performance
Saturday 7 Nov 2026 14:30
Captioned Performance
Saturday 14 Nov 2026 14:30
More information about the cast
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS – LYUBOV RANEVSKAYA
Kristin Scott Thomas is a BAFTA winner and recipient of four Evening Standard British Film Awards, two London Critics’ Circle Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Bilingual in French and English, she earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for The English Patient and César nominations for I’ve Loved You So Long, Leaving, Contre Toi and Sarah’s Key. She recently made her directorial debut with My Mother’s Wedding, which she co-wrote and stars in. She reprises Diana Taverner in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses. Her acclaimed film work includes Four Weddings and a Funeral, Gosford Park, The Horse Whisperer, Darkest Hour, I’ve Loved You So Long and Leaving. On stage, she won the Olivier Award for The Seagull and starred in The Audience, Electra, Betrayal and Lyonesse.
STEPHEN MANGAN – LOPAKHIN
Theatre includes: The Truth (Apollo); Unicorn (Garrick); Private Lives (Donmar); A Christmas Carol, The Norman Conquests (Old Vic); The Man in The White Suit (Wyndham’s); The Birthday Party (Harold Pinter); Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Duke of York’s); Much Ado About Nothing (Cheek by Jowl).
RUBY BENTALL – SHARLOTTA
Theatre includes: All’s Well that Ends Well (Globe); Our Country’s Good (Lyric Hammersmith); The Rubenstein Kiss(Southwark Playhouse); Hogarth’s Progress (Rose); Ramona Tells Jim (Bush); Britten in Brooklyn (Wiltons Music Hall); Peter and Alice (Noël Coward); Hansel and Gretel, Grief, The Miracle, DNA (National Theatre); Blue Heart Afternoon(Hampstead); Remembrance Day (Royal Court); Alice (Sheffield Crucible).
MEGAN CUSACK – DUNYASHA
Theatre includes: The Shaughraun, On the Outside, The Cherry Orchard, McDonough’s Wife, Cathleen Ní Houlihan (Druid Theatre); Playboy of the Western World (National Theatre); Three Sisters (Dublin Theatre Festival); The Country Girls (Abbey Theatre) and Women of Paradise, The Dark Horse (Trafalgar Studios).
KARL JOHNSON – FIRS
Theatre includes: The Crucible (National Theatre/ West End); Under Milk Wood, Frankenstein, The Seafarer, The Machine Wreckers, The Shape of the Table, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Uncle Vanya, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Glengarry Glen Ross, Wild Honey (National Theatre); Endgame, King Lear (Old Vic); Girl from the North Country (Noël Coward); Hamlet (Barbican); Fathers and Sons (Donmar); Noises Off (The Old Vic/ West End); Amadeus (Peter Hall Company); In the Company of Men, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (RSC); As You Like It (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
NOOF OUSELLAM – YASHA
Theatre includes: Macbeth (Donmar/ Harold Pinter); Baghdaddy (Royal Court); Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s); Buggy Baby (Yard Theatre); Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre); Richard III (Cockpit Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Almeida); Respect (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Rendition Monologues (Sheffield Crucible).
NADIA PARKES – ANYA
Theatre includes: Juniper Blood (Donmar); The House Party (Chichester Festival).
JACK RIDDIFORD – TROFIMOV
Theatre includes: Cleansed, Romeo & Juliet, Duchess of Malfi (Almeida); Stereophonic (Duke of York’s); The Caretaker (Minerva Theatre); Jerusalem (Apollo); The Inheritance (Noël Coward); Macbeth, A View from the Bridge, Hot Air (Tobacco Factory Theatre); Junkyard (Bristol Old Vic); In Case of Emergency (Southbank Centre).
VINETTE ROBINSON – VARYA
Theatre credits include: Othello (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Emilia ( Shakespeare’s Globe); Albion (Almeida); Hamlet (Young Vic); Tendernapalm, Trout Stanley (Southwark Playhouse); Welcome to Thebes, Measure for Measure (National Theatre); On Darker Shores (Hampstead Theatre); Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre); War and Peace (Shared Experience); Paradise Lost (Headlong); A New Way to Please You, Sejanus, Speaking like Magpies, Thomas Moore (Royal Shakespeare Company).
SHUBHAM SARAF – YEPIKHODOV
Theatre includes: An Enemy of the People (Duke of York’s); The Father and the Assassin, Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre).
PETER WIGHT – GAEV
Theatre includes: Three Sisters (Shakespeare’s Globe); London Tide, The Red Lion, Ivanov, Sleep With Me, Murmuring Judges, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Black Snow, Waiting for Godot (National Theatre); Hamnet (RSC/ Garrick),; Hamlet, Oresteia (New York Armory); Uncle Vanya, The Birthday Party (Harold Pinter); Rosmersholm (Duke of York’s); Hamlet (Almeida/ Harold Pinter); The Seagull (Royal Court/ Broadway); Trelawny of The Wells (Donmar); Otherwise Engaged (Criterion); Chekhov’s Women (Shaftesbury); Mouth to Mouth (Noël Coward); In The Republic of Happiness, In Basildon, Face to the Wall, Not A Game for Boys (Royal Court); The Caretaker (Globe Theatre, Warsaw); Edward II(Manchester Royal Exchange); Dearly Beloved, Grace (Hampstead); A State of Affairs, Othello, Commedia, Progress(Lyric Hammersmith).
