The Truth

What Is The Truth About?

Two couples. A tangle of secrets. And a truth nobody is ready to face. The Truth is the Olivier-nominated comedy by Academy Award-winning playwright Florian Zeller — wickedly funny, elegantly crafted, and playing at London's Apollo Theatre for a strictly limited 14-week season from 9 June to 12 September 2026. Directed by Lindsay Posner in a translation by Christopher Hampton, this star-driven West End revival stars Tony Award-nominated Stephen Mangan, comedy icon Ardal O'Hanlon, Sarah Hadland, and double Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee.

At the centre of the play is Michel — a man conducting an affair with his best friend's wife, while convincing himself, and everyone around him, that honesty is overrated. As the web of deception tightens, alliances shift, loyalties fracture, and the audience is kept brilliantly off-balance as to who is really deceiving whom. The show runs for approximately 90 minutes with no interval.

What begins as a playful comedy about adultery gradually reveals itself to be something far more intricate. Florian Zeller's signature gift is pulling the rug from under you — just when you think you've found solid ground, the floor shifts again. It is laugh-out-loud funny, gripping, and unexpectedly moving.

The Cast

Stephen Mangan makes his long-awaited return to the London stage in the lead role of Michel. Best known to TV audiences for The Split and Episodes, and Tony Award-nominated for his stage work, Mangan brings exactly the charm and comic precision this role demands.

Joining him is Ardal O'Hanlon, beloved for Father Ted, alongside Sarah Hadland of Miranda and The Job Lot, and double Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee — a cast as formidable on paper as it will be on stage. The production is directed by Lindsay Posner, whose West End credits include A View From The Bridge at Theatre Royal Haymarket and Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre, with set and costume design by Lizzie Clachan.

About Florian Zeller

Florian Zeller is widely regarded as one of the most exciting dramatists working today. His play The Father — which also ran at the Apollo Theatre — became a double Oscar and BAFTA-winning film starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, scripted by Zeller and his longtime collaborator Christopher Hampton. The Truth showcases a different register: where The Father is devastating in its emotional precision, The Truth is wicked, playful, and razor-sharp — Zeller at his most entertaining, though as his audiences know, there is always more going on beneath the surface than first appears.

The Apollo Theatre

Opened in 1901 and seating around 775 across four levels, the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue is one of the West End's most beloved mid-size venues. Its intimate auditorium, ornate Edwardian interior, and long history of hosting serious drama and high-calibre comedy make it an ideal home for a play that is very much both. The theatre is operated by Nimax Theatres and is a short walk from Piccadilly Circus Underground station, putting you squarely in the heart of London's Theatreland with Soho and Covent Garden's pre-theatre dining on your doorstep.