Julie Christie prepares to star in Old Times at Wyndham's Theatre

Julie Christie prepares to star in one of the most keenly anticipated and certainly most belated West End stage debuts of the year, writes David Lister.

Tomorrow at Wyndham's Theatre the 54-year-old actress appears in a revival of Harold Pinter's 1972 play Old Times.

It is now 33 years since Miss Christie's film debut. During that time she has always avoided high profile stagework, despite becoming a household name in the sixties through films such as Dr Zhivago, Darling, Billy Liar and Far From the Madding Crowd.

The production, which transferred from Theatr Clwyd in north Wales, also stars Harriet Walter and Leigh Lawson. Though Miss Walter has appeared often with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, tomorrow also marks her first time on the West End stage. The coincidence of two such well-known actresses making their West End debuts together, in a cast of only three, looks set to make one of the more unusual footnotes in theatrical history.

Photograph: Stuart Morris