The Line of Beauty

I can’t explain it. I can’t explain any of it to you. The line of beauty which led me to him... to here.

London. Summer, 1983.

Nick Guest moves into the grand Notting Hill home of his university friend Toby - and into the dazzling world of Toby’s father Gerald, a newly elected Tory MP, his elegant wife Rachel, and their troubled daughter Cat. From private gardens to country estates, glittering parties to political dinners, Nick is swept up in a world of money, power and privilege. A world that promises everything - and exacts a cost.

As he pursues beauty in all its forms, Nick finds himself caught between the freedoms of desire and the rigid boundaries of class, sexuality and public image in a rapidly changing Britain.

Olivier Award nominee Jack Holden’s (Cruise; Kenrex) new adaptation of The Line of Beauty is a captivating portrait of Thatcher’s Britain at its most decadent and divisive, based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.

This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere production at the Almeida Theatre in October 2025.

Jack Holden is an actor and writer from London. His West End credits include the National Theatre’s War Horse and the Almeida Theatre’s Ink. He has also performed at the RSC, Bristol Old Vic and toured extensively around the UK. Cruise was his West End debut as a playwright.