Samuel Adamson’s new play Mrs Affleck, which receives its world premiere in London at the National’s Cottesloe theatre, is inspired by Ibsen’s Little Eyolf.

After six lonely weeks with nobody but her little boy for company, Rita, the Mrs Affleck of the title, a wealthy beautiful woman consumed by jealous love, welcomes home her husband Alfred. But, far from the passionate reunion she so craves, there is only torment as Alfred’s possessive half-sister arrives and he announces his great revelation.

Set in 1950s England, Mrs Affleck is a tragic tale of obsessive love.

Playwright Adamson is proving himself to be one of the most prolific contemporary writers around. Mrs Affleck will be his third production at the National Theatre following Southwark Fair and his version of Ibsen’s Pillars Of The Community, while elsewhere his productions include the recent adaptation of All About My Mother at the Old Vic, adaptations of Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard for Oxford Stage Company, and Some Kind Of Bliss at the Trafalgar Studio 2.

Mrs Affleck is directed at the Cottesloe by National Theatre Associate Director Marianne Elliott, who previously directed Adamson’s Pillars Of The Community. Her other productions at the South Bank venue include Harper Regan, Thérèse Raquin, and the Laurence Olivier Award-winning productions of Saint Joan and War Horse.

The cast of Mrs Affleck includes Angus Wright, who worked with Elliott on Saint Joan and War Horse, Naomi Frederick, whose credits include Brief Encounter, and Claire Skinner, who appeared at the National in A Winter’s Tale, Othello and Invisible Friends.