Keyhole urgency: Psychological thrills in The Housemaid: The Play
EVERY house has its secrets. The question is: who holds the keys? Find out the answer in The Housemaid: The Play, whose debut tour will visit the Grand Opera House, York, from November 23 to 27…NEXT year.
ATG+ pre-sale opens at 10am on November 5; general sales follow from 10am on November 6 at atgtickets.com/york/.
Based on Freida McFadden’s best-selling novel, the psychological thriller makes its stage bow in Melting Pot’s gripping new production, led by Simon Friend and Hanna Osmolska (Life Of Pi; Paranormal Activity), to be mounted in collaboration with Lionsgate,
Adapted by stage and screen writer Bekah Brunstetter (Tony Award nominee for The Notebook; The Five-Star Weekend) and directed by Tony Award and Olivier Award nominee Matthew Dunster (2:22 A Ghost Story; The Hunger Games: On Stage), the show will be based on both the Lionsgate film, released last December en route to grossing $400 million at the box office, and McFadden’s literary phenomenon.
Directed by Paul Feig from a screenplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine rooted in McFadden’s book, the film was produced by Todd Lieberman, Laura Fischer and Feig.
Opening at the Richmond Theatre, London, on September 14 2027, the stage production marks the latest step in the studio’s continued expansion of The Housemaid franchise, where the film sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret, is in production already, set for a global theatrical release on December 17 2027.
Bekah Brunstetter will write the play. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her work on the book for the Broadway musical The Notebook. Last year, her play Mother’s Day debuted as part of the DNA New Works Program at La Jolla Playhouse, University of California, San Diego. Her play The Cake has been produced more than 100 times globally.
Brunstetter also created the television series The Five-Star Weekend, starring Jennifer Garner and Regina Hall, and her television work includes American Gods, This Is Us and Maid, for which she won a Writers Guild of America Award.
Matthew Dunster is a theatre and film director and writer. Previously an actor, he has directed or written more than 60 theatre shows, often with major companies, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Royal Court, Young Vic, Royal Exchange, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Bridge, as well as directing on the West End, Broadway and internationally. He has been the associate director of The Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
His theatre credits include: 2:22 A Ghost Story, which ran in the West End for 694 performances; Shirley Valentine and The Pillowman (The Duke of York’s); The Homecoming (Young Vic); Dealer’s Choice (The Donmar) and The Hunger Games: On Stage (Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre).
Dunster has been nominated for four Olivier Awards and his Broadway production of Hangmen was nominated for five Tony Awards.
American author Freida McFadden is known for her psychological thrillers and medical-themed suspense novels. She gained widespread recognition with The Housemaid (2022), which became a viral sensation, leading to two sequels: The Housemaid’s Secret (2023) and The Housemaid Is Watching (2024).
McFadden’s work has been selected as one of Amazon Editors’ best books of the year; she has won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Paperback and she is a Goodreads Choice Award winner.
Beyond her literary successes, McFadden has been lauded for her contributions to literature, with her novels consistently appearing as #1 on bestseller lists (The New York Times, Amazon Charts, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times and Publishers Weekly). To date, her novels have been translated into more than 45 languages.
“With the stage play debuting next year and our sequel film in production, the momentum behind The Housemaid franchise continues to grow,” says Jenefer Brown, Lionsgate’s president for Global Products & Experiences.
“We’re thrilled to work with Simon, Hanna, Bekah and Matthew to bring this story to the stage in an entirely new way, giving audiences the chance to experience its suspense, twists and turns live.”
Melting Pot producer Simon Friend says: “Bekah’s adaptation of The Housemaid is exactly what we’d hoped for – a fresh and uniquely theatrical take on this wildly popular story – and made with Matthew Dunster’s vision, it will certainly bring a thrilling new dimension to the franchise.”