Full casting is announced today for the UK premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s brilliant romantic comedy Stage Kiss which opens at Hampstead Theatre in a new production directed by Blanche McIntyre from 8 May to 13 June.

The production sees MyAnna Buring (anthropology, Hampstead Theatre; Twilight) and Patrick Kennedy (Photograph 51, Noël Coward Theatre; Blue Moon) play She and He - two actors with a history who are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama.

They are joined by Toto Bruin (It’s A Sin); Oliver Dimsdale (The Argument, Hampstead Theatre); James Phoon (Much Ado About Nothing, Theatre Royal Drury Lane; Bridgerton); Rolf Saxon (Eureka Day, Aurora Theatre California; Mission Impossible – Final Reckoning) and Jill Winternitz (Once, Phoenix Theatre; Havoc).

Tony Award nominated and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl's Stage Kiss received critical acclaim during its New York run in 2014, she says;

“Most plays I’ve written have some kissing in them. And when I come to work, sit behind a table, and watch people kiss for a job, knowing that the actors have also come to work, and are now kissing for a job… well, over the years, I’ve thought: how strange. And so, I wanted to write a play about the phenomenon of kissing on stage. In a way, it’s a love letter to theatre and all the actors I’ve ever worked with and I’m delighted to be working with Blanche McIntyre again at Hampstead Theatre.”

Stage Kiss begins with a sweeping melodrama. It’s 1930 New York, Ada is dying and her true love has journeyed from Europe for one final embrace. The estranged lovers are reunited, convinced their love will conquer all obstacles. Except, it’s 2011 New Haven, and these are rehearsals for The Last Kiss, a long-forgotten play. And there’s a plot twist. Art imitates life, and our two leading actors have an explosive romantic history of their own. As opening night approaches, a passionate affair may be waiting in the wings…

Stage Kiss is director Blanche McIntyre’s second collaboration with Sarah Ruhl following the successful Hampstead Downstairs and Off West End award-winning production Letters from Max in 2025. Blanche’s other recent productions at Hampstead Theatre also include the critically-acclaimed sold out run of The Assembled Parties and the record-breaking The Invention of Love.

Stage Kiss is designed by Robert Innes Hopkins with lighting design by Oliver Fenwick, sound design by Gregory Clarke and composition by Grant Olding. Fight, movement and intimacy direction is by Yarit Dor, the assistant director is Olivia Munk and the casting director is Juliet Horsley CDG.

 

Stage Kiss plays on the Main Stage from 8 May - 13 June 2026.  

BOOK STAGE KISS HERE