{"id":138169,"date":"2025-10-22T11:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/138169\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:31:08","slug":"star-treks-chris-pine-to-make-london-theatre-debut-in-ivanov-next-summer-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/138169\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek\u2019s Chris Pine to make London theatre debut in Ivanov next summer | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Star Trek\u2019s Chris Pine<\/a> will boldly go to the Bridge next summer but the actor, best known for playing James T Kirk in the sci-fi reboot, is swapping the starship for the stage.<\/p>\n

For his London theatre debut, Pine has been cast in the title role of a new version of Chekhov\u2019s early play Ivanov by Australian writer-director Simon Stone. Produced by London Theatre Company, Ivanov will open in July at the Bridge theatre<\/a>, where Stone\u2019s update of Ibsen\u2019s The Lady from the Sea<\/a> is now running.<\/p>\n

Pine, who performed in theatre productions while studying English at the University of California in Berkeley, had lead roles in the US in The Atheist by Ronan Noone (in New York in 2006) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh (in Los Angeles in 2010). His films have included Wonder Woman, Don\u2019t Worry Darling and the 2023 mystery Poolman, which the actor also co-wrote and directed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to bring this complex character and story to life and to take part in Simon\u2019s singular creative process,\u201d said Pine. Stone, whose past London hits include Yerma<\/a> with Billie Piper at the Young Vic in 2016, is known for writing new scenes throughout his rehearsal process. He called Pine a \u201cuniquely sensitive and brilliantly intelligent\u201d actor. \u201cI\u2019ve seen in his work how hilarious he can be but also how moving: you can\u2019t do Chekhov without both. Ivanov is the most knotty of his male characters, a challenge and a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea Riseborough and Kenneth Branagh in Ivanov at the Wyndham\u2019s theatre in 2008. Photograph: Tristram Kenton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Chekhov\u2019s play, first performed in 1887, concerns a landowner who is heavily in debt and whose marriage reaches breaking point. Kenneth Branagh took the role opposite Andrea Riseborough in the West End in 2008 in a new version by Tom Stoppard<\/a>. David Hare\u2019s version of the play was part of the Young Chekhov trilogy staged in Chichester in 2015<\/a> and later at the National Theatre in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cChekhov is the master of finding the humour in our suffering and the crisis lurking underneath our joy,\u201d said Stone. \u201cA mercurial magician of character drama, he elevates the seemingly banal to the sublime and then pops the balloon just as it\u2019s getting too poetic \u2026 During his career as a doctor, Chekhov developed a deep empathy and curiosity for his fellow human, and his writing beats with the heart of a great humanist. The characters are gifts to complex, versatile actors: existence writ messily and lovingly, an ode to imperfection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivanov will run from 4 July to 19 September and reunites Stone\u2019s creative team for The Lady from the Sea: set designer Lizzie Clachan, costume designer Mel Page, composition and sound designer Stefan Gregory, lighting designer Nick Schlieper and casting director Jessica Ronane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Star Trek\u2019s Chris Pine will boldly go to the Bridge next summer but the actor, best known for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-138169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}