Higgins will star with fellow National Theatre veteran actor Greg Hicks in Mehmet Ergen's production. Set in the offices of Britain's worst newspaper, the Daily Clarion, it is described in press materials as an urgent black comedy about free speech, nationalism and the state of the British media in 2015.



In the play, Morris Honeyspoon (Hicks), the Clarion's egomaniacal editor, spends his weekends dressed as Julius Caesar, and at work he rules like a tyrant. But life at his beloved paper is a masterclass in incompetence and deceit. As political storm clouds gather over an uneasy country, it seems the paper's worst crimes are about to be exposed. With Honeyspoon frantically searching for an office traitor, washed-up foreign correspondent Verity Stokes (Higgins) masterminds a murderous day of reckoning.



The cast also comprises Peter Bourke, Jim Bywater, Jim Dunkley, Laura Smithers and Ryan Wichert.

Higgins is a three-time winner of the Olivier Award for Best Actress (for Vincent in Brixton, Sweet Bird of Youth and Hecuba, all seen at the National, and she has been nominated six times in all). Screen credits include the Philip Pullman adaptation "The Golden Compass," Woody Allen's "Cassandra’s Dream," "Hellraiser," "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" and "Downton Abbey."



Hicks has appeared extensively with both the National (including most recently Orestes in The Oresteia) and the RSC, for whom he has played the title roles in King Lear and Macbeth as well as Brutus in Julius Caesar. He was last seen at the Arcola as Dr Thomas Stockmann in Ergen's 2008 production of An Enemy of the People. Jagasia is a former staff journalist on the Evening Standard, a former showbusiness editor of the Daily Express and a contributor to other newspapers including the Guardian and Sunday Telegraph. Clarion is his first stage-play.

To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7503 1646 or visit www.arcolatheatre.com.