Kit Harington assured Jeremy O. Harris he wouldn't be 'a distraction' in Slave Play

Kit Harington assured playwright Jeremy O. Harris that his star casting wouldn't be a distraction in the London run of Slave Play.

The Game of Thrones actor has signed up to star in the West End transfer of Harris' controversial play about race, identity and sexuality in contemporary America.

Harris told The Guardian on Tuesday that Harington was recommended to him by his former Game of Thrones co-star Gwendoline Christie and he wouldn't have agreed to the actor's casting if he wanted to "make it the Jon Snow experience".

He continued, "Kit was saying 'I don't want this to be 'Kit Harington in Slave Play', this is an ensemble play and I'm not even the lead.' He knows the weight his name carries and how that could become a distraction, if we allowed it to be."

Slave Play debuted on Broadway in 2019 and achieved 12 Tony nominations, breaking the record for a non-musical play. Set on a plantation, it follows three interracial couples undergoing "Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy" to reinvigorate their relationships.

Harington stars in the London production alongside Fisayo Akinade, Aaron Heffernan and Olivia Washington as well as James Cusati-Moyer, Chalia La Tour, Annie McNamara and Irene Sofia Lucio from the original Broadway show.

The 37-year-old previously appeared on the London stage in Posh, Doctor Faustus, True West and Henry V.

The show will run at the Noël Coward Theatre from 29 June to 21 September. There will be two Black Out performances on 17 July and 17 September where the "all-Black-identifying audience" can watch the play "free from the white gaze".