Intrigued by the impending UK premiere of Sinners – The English Professor, directed by Brian Cox? Feed that interest with behind the scenes pictures of rehearsals, then book your tickets!
The taut drama, which stars Cox’s wife Nicole Ansari, runs at the Playground Theatre from 25 February to 14 March 2020.
Layla, a University professor in an unnamed Muslim country, is denounced for an affair with her former student, Nur, and is waiting to be stoned to death for adultery. Nur can save his own life by throwing the first stone. What choice will he make?
The play, written by Joshua Sobol, examines both Layla’s and Nur’s choices for love and survival, and the striving for freedom in a patriarchal culture.
Sobol, who wrote Sinners – The English Professor in 2008, is an Israeli novelist and playwright whose work includes Alice and Martin, Bereaved and the Evening Standard Award-winning Ghetto.
Ansari, who plays Layla, boasts stage credits including Rock ‘n’ Roll (Royal Court Theatre/Duke of York’s Theatre/Bernard B. Jacobs Theater), Daybreak (Beckett Theater) I am Antigone (Theater for the New City) and Hamlet (The Mirror Rep). She is joined in Sinners – The English Professor by Adam Sina, whose London productions include When My Mama was a Hittite (Park Theatre), War Horse (New London Theatre) and A Moon for the Misbegotten (The Old Vic).
Though Cox is best known for his acting roles, which include award-winning performances in TV series Succession and Nuremberg, this is not the first time he has directed, having helmed The Cherry Orchard at Moscow Art Academic Theatre and Richard III at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Sinners rehearsal gallery
