Keeley Hawes will play a left-wing doctor in a new play that marks her return to the stage after a decade away.
The actress, whose roles have included TV hits such as Line of Duty and Ashes to Ashes, will appear in playwright Lucy Kirkwood's new drama The Human Body alongside Jack Davenport at the Donmar Warehouse.
The play is set in 1948 and stars Hawes as a GP and Labour Party politician in the first days of the National Health Service with Davenport playing a Hollywood star who has come back to his roots in small-town England.
Hawes, who last appeared on stage in 2013 in Barking in Essex, told the BBC her character was "a brilliant, complicated, inspiring role" in a "wonderfully tender and human story".
The Human Body opens in February and other shows announced for next year at the Covent Garden venue include a new production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard starring Sherwood star Adeel Akhtar and a European premiere of Eboni Booth's Primary Trust about a man forced to re-enter the world when the bookshop where he works closes down.
The 2024 season will be the last under current artistic director Michael Longhurst who said it had been "an unalloyed privilege to helm the Donmar Warehouse for the last five years".
Tim Sheader, who currently runs Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, will take over from Longhurst. Previous artistic directors include Josie Rourke and Sam Mendes.
Next up at the venue is a production of Macbeth starring David Tennant in the title role which opens in December.
