Stephen Mangan is heading back to the West End in Florian Zeller’s comedy The Truth, a revival now fully cast and set to open at London’s Apollo Theatre on June 9. The 14-week run will close on September 12.
Mangan joins Ardal O’Hanlon, Sarah Hadland, Janie Dee, Adam Morris and Roisin Rae in the production, which is directed by Lindsay Posner. Christopher Hampton has translated the play, and the creative team is rounded out by set and costume designer Lizzie Clachan, lighting designer Richard Howell, sound designer Adam Cork, assistant director Rosie Tricks, costume supervisor Joanna Coe, props supervisor Lily Mollgaard and production manager Martyn Sands.
The Truth follows Michel, a man who begins an affair with his best friend’s wife and then has to manage the lies that follow. Simon Friend, who is producing with Hanna Osmolska for Melting Pot in association with Gavin Kalin Productions and Fiery Dragons, described the play as an ingenious puzzle that starts as a playful comedy about adultery before deepening into something more unsettling while staying entertaining throughout.
That promise matters because the production is not being sold as a straight drawing-room farce. Zeller’s name carries weight in London after The Father and The Son, and this revival leans on the same appeal: a neat dramatic machine that keeps shifting as the characters try to protect themselves. Friend said Hampton’s translation helped assemble a cast to die for, a sign that the producers are aiming for a commercial run with serious box-office muscle.
The cast and creative team now give the show its first full shape, and the timing leaves little room for drift. With previews set to begin before the June opening and the booking window running only through mid-September, The Truth will have to persuade audiences quickly that its mix of infidelity, wit and concealed motives still lands in a city where West End comedies live or die by word of mouth. If it does, the draw will be simple: a sharp play, a familiar name and a cast built to keep the machinery moving.
