Toby Stephens: 'It's great to be back on London stage after six years away'

Toby Stephens has spoken of his relief at returning to the London stage, saying: “It’s great to be back.”

The British actor, 48, who has spent six years working in the United States and South Africa, is back on home turf to play Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen in JT Rogers’s Oslo. It follows the true story of how Mr Rød-Larsen and his diplomat wife Mona Juul ended decades of stalemate in the Middle East to secretly broker the 1993 peace deal between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Stephens, a father of three, said the play’s focus on behind-the-scenes diplomacy stands in contrast to US president Donald Trump’s tactic of conducting foreign policy by Twitter.

Stephens, who last took to the London stage in 2012’s Private Lives, said: “Trump is not the master of diplomacy and he could learn a thing or two from this play.”

Having finished a Netflix remake of sci-fi series Lost In Space, following a long run in South Africa filming Treasure Island prequel Black Sails, he said: “It’s great coming home and to be able to work here again, while having the family settled here too.”