Knightley sells £1m in tickets, but isn’t top billing

Keira Knightley's stage debut in Moliere's Le Misanthrope has sold £1 million worth of tickets at the box office in only four days - a remarkable feat for a 17th-century French drama.

Le Misanthrope is a comedy of manners about the vapid hypocrisies of the French aristocracy, but Knightley will act alongside Damian Lewis in a modern day reworking. She will play the role of Celimene, a floozy loved by all the men in the play, who has been turned into a Hollywood starlet called Jennifer in this version.

Evidently, having such a bankable and beautiful star has helped the box office. But director Thea Sharrock, who has also worked with Daniel Radcliffe on a successful production of Equus, is adamant that it is Lewis, best known for his role in Band of Brothers, who will have top billing. "I signed up to work with Damian Lewis because it's brilliant to get him back on stage. And along the way we happened to get Keira Knightley, which is fantastic and I'm very excited but, you know, it's in that order."

Of course, the demands of treading the boards night after night are very different to shooting a movie. "She's absolutely ready to come into this vulnerable position - and I'm interested in working with her, to push her in a way that I don't think she has been pushed before because although she has worked with amazing directors, film doesn't work like that," Sharrock told the Daily Mail

Knightley recently finished filming London Boulevard, the tale of a South London gangster (Colin Farrell) who comes out of prison and tries to swap his life of crime for a job as a handyman to a reclusive actress.

London Boulevard also stars Anna Friel, who should be able to advise Knightley on the transition from screen to stage. Her turn as Holly Golightly in the new West End version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s has gone down a storm with the critics and public, even if the production itself has its detractors.