Sunday 22 Nov 2026, 14:00
A world-famous children’s author under threat, a battle of wills in the wake of scandal and one chance to make amends, GIANT tells the story of Roald Dahl and the true scandal that shook his legacy. GIANT stars Tony, Golden Globe, and Olivier Award-winner John Lithgow (Conclave, The Crown) as author Roald Dahl; Aya Cash (The Boys, The Franchise, You’re the Worst) as US Publisher Jessie Stone; Olivier Award-winner Elliot Levey (Cold War, Patriots, Good) as Tom Maschler, Dahl’s British Jewish Publisher; Olivier Award-nominee Rachael Stirling (The Divine Mrs S) as Felicity Crosland, Roald Dahl’s fiancée; Tessa Bonham Jones (Dune: Prophecy, The Young Woman and the Sea) as Hallie; and Richard Hope (Hijack) as Wally Saunders, Dahl’s handyman.
It’s the summer of 1983, The Witches is about to hit the shelves and Roald Dahl is making last-minute edits. But the outcry at his recent, explicitly antisemitic article won’t die down. Across a single afternoon at his family home, and rocked by an unexpectedly explosive confrontation, Dahl is forced to choose: make a public apology or risk his name and reputation.
Inspired by real events, GIANT explores with dark humour the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric offering a complicated portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon.
John Lithgow says: ‘I play the central character of Roald Dahl, a man of dizzying complexity, on a day of crisis in his life. The story takes place forty years ago, but it resonates powerfully with events of our present day. No play I’ve ever been in has had such an impact on audiences.