Robert Lindsay and Claire Skinner lead new season at The Hampstead Theatre

Robert Lindsay to star in Prism by Terry Johnson

The Hampstead Theatre in north London have today announced details of their new season.

The season begins with Prism, written and directed by Terry Johnson based on the extraordinary life of double Oscar-winning cinematic master Jack Cardiff. The production will run from 6 September to 14 October 2017, with an official opening on 14 September.

Robert Lindsay stars as Jack alongside Claire Skinner, Rebecca Night and Barnaby Kay.

"Legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff has retired to the sleepy village of Denham, Buckinghamshire. His days of hard work - and play - on some of the most famous sets in the world are now long behind him, as are his secret liaisons with some of the most famous women in the world... Surrounded by memorabilia from a lifetime of 'painting with light', the writing of an autobiography should be an easy matter - were it not that Jack would now rather live in the past than remember it."

This will be followed by The Slaves of Solitude by Nicholas Wright, adapted from the novel by Patrick Hamilton which runs from 20 October to 25 November 2017, with an official opening on 30 October.

Directed by Jonathan Kent this new play weaves a fascinating blend of dark hilarity and melancholy in a story about an improbable heroine in wartime Britain.

"1943, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Roach is forced by the war to flee London for the Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house, which is as grey and lonely as its residents. From the safety of these new quarters, her war now consists of a thousand petty humiliations, of which the most burdensome is sharing her daily life with the unbearable Mr. Thwaites. But a breath of fresh air arrives in the form of a handsome American Lieutenant and things start to look distinctly brighter... Until, that is, a seeming friend moves into the room adjacent to Miss Roach's, upsetting the precariously balanced ecosystem of the house..."

Cell Mates by Simon Gray, directed by Edward Hall will then run from 30 November to 20 January 2018, with an official opening on 7 December.

Unperformed since 1995 this new production explores how personal freedom is an illusion and even friendship must have carefully circumscribed limits in a world where deception is a reflex response.

"Wormwood Scrubs Prison, London, 1961. One of Britain's most notorious double agents, George Blake, is serving a 42 year sentence - that is, until he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Irish petty criminal, Sean Bourke. Both men are eccentric outsiders, and each sees the possibility of escape - and not just from prison - through the other. But once on the outside, can their mutual dependence survive the mounting pressures they face from MI5, from the KGB - and indeed from themselves?"

Artistic Director Edward Hall said of the new season: 'I'm extremely proud to announce such an exciting body of work at Hampstead Theatre this autumn. With two world premieres on the Main Stage, Terry Johnson's Prism and Nicholas Wright's adaptation of The Slaves of Solitude, and a long overdue revival of Simon Gray's Cell Mates, our aim is to continue to provide endless nights of top quality and entertaining theatre for hundreds of thousands of theatregoers."

Tickets for The Hampstead's new season are now on sale.