This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

James McAvoy is returning to the West End of London as Cyrano de Bergerac, the opening play of a season offering 15,000 free tickets to first-time theatre-goers.

Key workers, under 30s and people receiving benefits will also be targeted with an offer of 15,000 tickets at £15, as a way of encouraging new audiences.

The initiatives were announced by the theatre director Jamie Lloyd, returning to the West End to collaborate again with McAvoy, an actor he previously directed in Macbeth and The Ruling Class at Trafalgar Studios.

The new show is a version of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 comedy, freely adapted by the playwright Martin Crimp.

Lloyd has been a leading voice stressing the importance of diversifying audiences for commercial theatre and has spoken out against the high cost of tickets.

He said: “Every day, we talk about making theatre more accessible to absolutely everyone, but, inspired by free museum and gallery entry, I believe that true and meaningful access actually means free tickets. I hope that this inspires other theatre companies and producers to investigate similar schemes in the future, changing the landscape of West End theatre forever.”

The initiative is backed by the Ambassador Theatre Group and British Airways.

Cyrano de Bergerac tells the story of a soldier and lovelorn poet who falls for the beautiful Roxanne but fears his big nose will stop him finding happiness.

McAvoy had revealed that the project was on the cards as long ago as September 2017, when he posted a picture on Instagram of him carefully reading the script, his head shaved for the latest X-Men film but with him wearing a false nose. He wrote that Crimp “has done a brilliantly accessible, fun and emotionally powerful adaptation. I’m excited that my considerable conk is gonna get some serious augmentation.”

The play will be the opening production in a new Lloyd season at the Playhouse theatre from November 2019. The season will run until August 2020, with further shows yet to be announced.

Lloyd said he could not wait to get back in the rehearsal room with McAvoy, “who shares my commitment to accessibility in the arts”.

The director, who last year curated a six-month season showing all of Harold Pinter’s short plays, has been a withering critic of West End producers charging too much, particularly when celebrity actors are cast.

He told the Stage in 2016: “There are a lot of companies and producers out there who will … effectively exploit the profile of actors in a show by charging tickets that are soaring way past the £100 mark, which I think is outrageous. If you have a big house, and if you’ve got a lot of seats, then your tickets should come down, they should not go up.”