Via Dolorosa

Reader

Alex Lawther made his professional debut at sixteen, as the lead in David Hare’s South Downs at Chichester, which transferred to the West End. On screen he has been the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game and James in The End of the F***ing World, with roles in Black Mirror, Andor, The French Dispatch and The Last Duel. On stage he has played Hamlet for Robert Icke in New York, was in The Jungle, directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, and this year joined the National Theatre’s Summerfolk.

Photograph · CVGG

Director

Stephen Daldry directed the first Via Dolorosa in 1998, while he ran the Royal Court, and took it to Broadway the following year. His An Inspector Calls for the National won him an Olivier and, in New York, a Tony. His first three films — Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader, the last two written by David Hare — each brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Since then — Tonys for Billy Elliot the Musical and The Inheritance, Emmys for The Crown, and Stranger Things: The First Shadow on stage. He chairs the refugee arts charity Good Chance.

Photograph · Gasper Tringale

Writer

David Hare wrote Via Dolorosa after his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territory, in 1997, and performed it himself on both sides of the Atlantic; his diary of doing so is Acting Up. His plays include Plenty, Pravda (with Howard Brenton), Racing Demon, Skylight, Amy’s View, Stuff Happens and Straight Line Crazy, and his screenplays for The Hours and The Reader were both nominated for Academy Awards. This year Grace Pervades played the Haymarket; Montauk is due on Broadway in 2027. He was knighted in 1998.

Photograph · Faber