Joe Penhall’s new play marks the talkshow host’s first theatre role since One Man, Two Guvnors and will see him star opposite Anna Maxwell Martin at the Old Vic

James Corden is to return to the London stage for his first role since the National Theatre’s blockbuster farce One Man, Two Guvnors.

The star, who last year left his US late-night talkshow after eight years, will appear in a new political drama by Joe Penhall. The Constituent, at the Old Vic theatre, is set in an MP’s constituency office. Corden will play “an ex-serviceman with a life in freefall” while Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Line of Duty) is an opposition backbencher whose ideals of public office are tested by his demands. Zachary Hart completes the cast as a parliamentary protection officer. The play will be directed by the Old Vic’s artistic director, Matthew Warchus, and is said to explore “the conflict between public service and personal safety”.