First image released for West End show starring Peter Capaldi and Chris O’Dowd

The first promotional image has been released for West End show Constellations, which stars Peter Capaldi, Chris O’Dowd and Russell Tovey.

The love story will feature four sets of rotating casts and will be shown at the Vaudeville Theatre in London later this month.

Former Doctor Who actor Capaldi will star alongside Zoe Wanamaker, Sheila Atim will perform with Ivanno Jeremiah, Being Human star Tovey is paired with Omari Douglas and Anna Maxwell Martin will feature with The IT Crowd’s O’Dowd.

Director Michael Longhurst described Constellations as “a beautiful love story about possible worlds and the choices we make”.

The story “refracts itself differently in each couple’s hands, which is really fun and playful and beautiful and very moving for lots of different reasons depending on the lived experience that each couple brings”, he told the PA news agency.

Longhurst said he hopes the play encourages people in theatre to “explore the most exciting possibilities in casting when they pick up projects”.

He added: “This play, I think what it does is challenge our preconceptions of who a character is in a really exciting way.

“It’s a love story between a beekeeper and a quantum cosmologist and it offers us four possible permutations of who those people might be.”

The play is “a really special event that will really mark this moment” of theatres being able to welcome back audiences, Longhurst said.

“All the different couples are buzzing with anticipation and are sort of excited wondering how each of the other couples is going to interpret the story, which is fun,” he added.

Atim and Jeremiah’s run goes from June 18 to August 1, Capaldi and Wanamaker’s performances begin on June 23 and end on July 24, Douglas and Tovey will star from July 30 to September 11 and Maxwell Martin and O’Dowd will go from August 6 to September 12.