Downton's Joanne Froggatt Will Star in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole in the West End

Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt will star as Becca in the U.K. premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole. Directed by Nigel Harman, the show will have a limited engagement in the West End September 11 through November 22. Opening night is set for September 24 at the Vaudeville Theatre.

Downton fan spoiler alert: at the end of this piece is a nugget of information about Froggatt and Harman that you won’t want to read if you’ve not yet seen Season Four of the hit TV show.

Back to the play, the Tony nominated Rabbit Hole follows the story of Becca and Howie Corbett, parents who have all that a family could wish for, until one day their world is suddenly turned upside down. Eight months following that life-shattering incident the young couple find themselves drifting perilously apart. Rabbit Hole charts their search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.

Froggatt’s stage credits include The Knowledge/Little Platoons, All About My Mother, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Playhouse Creatures and Be My Baby. In addition to her role on Downton, her screen credits include The Secrets, True Love, The Royle Family, Identity, Moving On, Murder in the Outback, The Street, Missing, Dinner Ladies and Coronation Street, Still Life, Filth, U Want Me 2 Kill Him?, In Our Name, Echoes, Outside Inn and Miranda.

Rabbit Hole was first produced on Broadway in 2006, with Cynthia Nixon playing Becca. Nixon received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance. Lindsay-Abaire later adapted his stage play into a film starring Nicole Kidman.

And here’s the spoiler: Harman is also an actor, recently seen in the West End in I Can’t Sing! and on screen in Season Four of Downton Abbey, where he played evil valet Green. Green is the one who raped Froggat’s beloved character Anna and who then mysteriously died.