Toby Stephens to Headline Danton's Death at the National Theatre in London

Toby Stephens looks set for a busy year. The actor will follow up his springtime Old Vic revival of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing with the starring role in Georg Buchner’s Danton's Death. The play will be part of this summer's National Theatre repertoire in a new version of the German classic by U.K. dramatist Howard Brenton. Director Michael Grandage will make his National Theatre debut with the piece, which will bow in July 2010.

Stephens will be rehearsing Danton's Death while completing his run as the playwright, Henry, in The Real Thing, which has announced a limited engagement at the Old Vic from April 10 - June 5. Exact dates for the Buchner's repertory stint in the NT’s Olivier Theatre will be made known at a National Theatre press conference later this month. The actor, one of the two thespian sons of Dame Maggie Smith and the late Robert Stephens, most recently appeared on the London stage in A Doll's House, opposite Gillian Anderson, and before that opposite David Haig and Patricia Hodge in The Country Wife. His numerous TV and film credits include Jane Eyre, Cambridge Spies, and the James Bond movie, Die Another Day.

Grandage is currently represented at the Donmar (where he is artistic director) with his own sellout production of the John Logan play Red, starring Alfred Molina as the painter Mark Rothko.