The respected British actor Maxine Peake will make her Australian stage debut this August when she stars in Sydney Theatre Company’s Avalanche: A Love Story. A co-production between STC, Barbican London and Fertility Fest, the play will be directed by noted Australian director Anne-Louise Sarks. Avalanche: A Love Story is an adaptation of Australian novelist Julia Leigh’s memoir of the same name, telling the story of a woman undergoing IVF and the toll it takes on her body, relationship and career as an author and and filmmaker.

Maxine Peake. Photo supplied

On stage, Peake is best known for her portrayal of Hamlet in 2014 for the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, hailed as “stunningly good” by The Times and “a considerable achievement” by The Guardian. Michael Billington of The Guardian called the actor “an excellent Hamlet”, describing her performance as confirmation of “Peake’s capacity for emotional directness and a fierce, uncensored honesty.”

She was similarly celebrated for her performance of the Shelley poem, The Masque of Anarchy for Manchester International Festival in 2013, with The Telegraph calling it a “flawless rendition”.

Peake is also known for her considerable television and film credits, highlights of which...