“I’m not saying I was wise or heroic… I worked in clinics and hospitals and sat on committees and gave advice. I saved lives and I got rewarded and I’m bloody well not going to apologise for it.”

Sir Neil Marriot had a ‘good pandemic’, becoming familiar to millions from his TV appearances as a government medical advisor. His service even earned him a knighthood, and he is now rewarding himself with a lavish birthday party in the hallowed surroundings of his son’s alma mater. But, amidst the oak panelling, the champagne and the silver service, his family are at one another’s throats again, and he thinks there’s something familiar – and somehow unsettling – about one of the catering staff…

Richard Eyre is a vastly experienced director of theatre, opera, film and television who was Artistic Director of the National Theatre from 1988 to 1997. His previous productions at Hampstead have included The Last of the Duchess and Mr Foote’s Other Leg. A writer and regular adaptor of other people’s work for the stage, The Snail House is his first completely original play.

The cast includes Amanda Bright (In From the Cold, Netflix; Macbeth, Shakespeare Globe), Raphel Famotibe (Rocks, Fable Pictures; Wonder Boy, Bristol Old Vic), Vincent Franklin (Bodyguard, BBC; Mary Stuart, Almeida Theatre), Grace Hogg-Robinson (Flesh and Blood, ITV; The Ocean at the End of the Lane; National Theatre/Duke of York’s), Megan McDonnell (Normal People, BBC; The Playboy Of The Western World, Lyric Theatre), Eva Pope (Waterloo Road, BBC; Still Alice, UK Tour) and Patrick Walshe McBride (Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators, BBC; Peer Gynt, Barbican).

We are grateful to Lin and Ken Craig who have generously supported this production.