Star Wars actor John Boyega heads for Old Vic stage

Boyega played Finn in JJ Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars actor John Boyega is to star in a production of Woyzeck as part of the new season at The Old Vic.

He will play the lead in an adaptation of German playwright Georg Büchner's work by Skins and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child co-writer Jack Thorne.

The season also includes the world premiere of a Samuel Beckett monologue and Glenda Jackson as King Lear.

Artistic director Matthew Warchus said he wanted the theatre to be seen as a "leading creative hub".

The forthcoming season, which opens with the never-before performed Beckett work No's Knife on 29 September, will also see a 20th anniversary production of Yasmina Reza's Art - helmed by its original creative team - and a new version of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.

Announcing the season, Warchus said: "Anyone who has visited the Old Vic in the last eight months will have felt the new wave of energy which has swept through the building.

"There's much more happening, and for a much wider range of people. For a theatre without public funding, this is no mean feat.

"It's an exciting shift, aimed at consolidating the Old Vic as a vibrant and indispensable part of London's artistic scene."

Glenda Jackson will take the lead role in the production of William Shakespeare's King Lear

Büchner's play, published posthumously in 1879, is based on the true story of a military barber who stabbed to death his mistress in a fit of jealousy.

Boyega, who played Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will take to the stage in February next year.

King Lear, which opens in October, will also star Jane Horrocks and Rhys Ifans, while the theatre will also stage a 50th anniversary production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and bring back The Lorax, which ran there last year.

The season also includes work for young people, including a newly commissioned puppetry show, Missing Light, and a collaboration with inclusive theatre company Chickenshed.