GIANT – The Play

GIANT is coming to Storyhouse Cinema on Thursday 19 November, as a cinema screening of the West End play. It's a filmed version of the stage production, so you're seeing the full show on the big screen rather than a live performance in the room. The play runs about 136 minutes and is rated 15.

It's set in the summer of 1983, just as The Witches is about to be published. Roald Dahl is forced to choose between making a public apology and risking his name and reputation after the outcry over an explicitly antisemitic article. It's based on real events, and it puts the author in a very different light from the children's writer most of us know.

John Lithgow takes the role of Dahl, and he's a big part of the play's pedigree: it won three Olivier Awards, including Best Play, and Lithgow himself took home a Tony for Best Actor in a Play for this performance. He's also appeared in Killers of the Flower Moon and The Crown. The rest of the cast includes Aya Cash, known from The Boys, The Franchise and You're the Worst; Elliot Levey, from Cold War, Patriots and Good; and Rachael Stirling, from The Divine Mrs S. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner, and the whole thing was filmed live in London's West End before its sold-out Broadway run.

There are two screenings: Thursday 19 November at 7pm and Sunday 22 November at 2pm. Tickets are £17.55 for members and £19.50 for non-members, with under-16s at £13.05 (non-members £14.50) and a Young Storyhouse Card price of £13.05. It's a five-star, critically acclaimed play, so if you've got an interest in Dahl or just a good night of theatre, this is a decent way to catch it without having to get to London.