GIANT – The Play

John Lithgow takes the stage at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Thursday 19 November, playing Roald Dahl in GIANT. It's a screening of the Olivier and Tony Award-winning play, filmed live in London's West End before its sold-out Broadway run, so you're seeing the West End production brought to Scarborough.

Lithgow doesn't go for the Roald Dahl we all know from the children's books. The play focuses on a specific, messy stretch of the man's life: the summer of 1983, when The Witches was about to be published and Dahl found himself facing a public scandal after an explicitly antisemitic article. It's framed as a battle of wills in the wake of that, with Dahl's reputation on the line and a choice to make between a public apology and letting the fallout stand. It's less about the stories he wrote and more about the man behind them, caught in a moment he couldn't easily write his way out of.

Lithgow is the lead, and he's joined by Aya Cash, Elliot Levey and Rachael Stirling. The play has a strong pedigree behind it: it's a five-star, critically acclaimed stage adaptation that took home three Olivier Awards, including Best Play, and earned Lithgow a Tony for Best Actor in a Play. Since it was filmed live in the West End, the performance you'll see is the one that went on to Broadway.

It runs on Thursday 19 November at 7pm at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Westborough, with tickets starting from £18.