The assassination of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko unfolds on stage nightly, with A Very Expensive Poison premiering at The Old Vic. Starring Tom Brooke as Litvinenko and MyAnna Buring as his wife, Marina, the play is based on Luke Harding鈥檚 book of the same name and helmed by John Crowley.
A Very Expensive Poison follows the days leading up and after Litvinenko鈥檚 death in 2006. The defector was a whistleblower of the Kremlin鈥檚 ties to organized crime living in the U.K. as a naturalized citizen when he was poisoned by Russian security agents.
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Also in the cast are Peter Polycarpou, Michael Shaeffer, Lloyd Hutchinson, Thomas Arnold, Callum Coates, Marc Graham, Amanda Hadingue, Yasmine Holness-Dove, Robyn Moore, Sarah Seggari, Reece Shearsmith, Gavin Spokes, and Bea Svistunenko.
The creative team includes set and costume designer Tom Scutt, lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin, sound designer Paul Arditti, choreographer Aletta Collins, and composer Paddy Cunneen.