White Lotus star Julian Kostov ‘very excited’ to be making West End debut

The White Lotus actor Julian Kostov has said he is “very excited” to be making his West End debut in a play that has transferred from the National Theatre.

Till The Stars Come Down, written by Beth Steel, takes place over a hot summer’s day during the wedding of Kostov’s character Marek to Sylvia (Sinead Matthews).

Bulgarian actor Kostov, 35, who played Aleksei in the recent series of Mike White’s black comedy, told the PA news agency: “I was reading the play for the audition…

Julian Kostov arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of HBO Original Series The White Lotus Season 3 (Imagespace/Alamy Live News/PA)

“(There are) so many well-developed characters and I was laughing throughout it, and the tension was building and then, the last two pages, I was reading them without taking a breath.

“Then the last sentence, I read the last word, and I started bawling my eyes out on the page, and I was like, this is probably some of the best writing I’ve ever read.

“It’s so heartbreaking in the end that I was just shook and broken, and thought ‘I need to be a part of this’.”

He added: “I’m also just very excited to be my doing my West End debut.”

The play, set in the East Midlands, explores the tensions and attitudes that exist in a community where people from eastern Europe have migrated to find work.

“The fact that this is part of the conversation is very important and, for me, the representation of the casting, me being cast as another eastern European is, I think, very important”, Kostov said.

“It’s very well-explored, I think, very deeply explored in a very smart way. So I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into it,” he added.

Ludwig actress Dorothy Atkinson plays Aunty Carol in the play and said the subject matter is “smartly written”.

She told PA: “It’s very obviously set in Nottingham… because it’s such a universal story, people will relate to it completely, I think.”

The production, also starring Adrian Bower, Aisling Loftus and Ruby Thompson, will be staged at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London from July 1 until September 27 2025.

On-stage seating is available throughout the run. Tickets are on sale now at prices from £20.