Hiddleston to headline Donmar's staging of 'Coriolanus'

LONDON, May 20 (UPI) -- Britain's Donmar Warehouse theater company says its fall season will include a new staging of William Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," starring Tom Hiddleston.

"This year, the Donmar is a champion of British and Irish theater," Donmar Artistic Director Josie Rourke said in a statement Monday.

"This next season of new and classic work examines life on these islands and considers how we find our place in the world," she said. "Struggle, laughter and tragedy are in all these plays. When work on our stage can not only ask what essentially it is to be human but also ask what it is to be human right now -- that's dynamite."

The season will open with the world premiere of Nick Payne's new play, "The Same Deep Water As Me," directed by John Crowley and starring Nigel Lindsay, Daniel Mays and Monica Dolan.

Next, James Macdonald will direct Arnold Wesker's modern classic, "Roots," starring Jessica Raine, Linda Bassett and Emma Stansfield.

Rourke will then direct Hiddleston in the title role of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," alongside Mark Gatiss as Menenius.

In October, the Donmar and St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., will present the U.S. premiere of the Donmar's critically acclaimed all-female production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." Phyllida Lloyd directs the production with original cast members Harriet Walter, Frances Barber, Jenny Jules and Cush Jumbo.

"With the American premiere of 'Julius Caesar,' Phyllida Lloyd's ground-breaking production and company will bring the important conversation they began in London to New York this autumn," Rourke said. "I'm delighted that this incredible re-imagining of a classic play will follow 'The Machine' in New York, and be the first London to New York transfer from the Donmar's new team."