Vardy v Rooney: ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial to be staged in the West End

The “Wagatha Christie” legal battle between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy will be staged in the West End for one night only.

Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial has been adapted from a High Court transcript by Liv Hennessy and will be directed by Lisa Spirling.

The play will be produced by Eleanor Lloyd, who is behind the stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Witness For The Prosecution currently running in London.

Theatre producer Eilene Davidson is also working on the project.

In the trial which gripped the nation earlier this summer, Vardy, 40, lost a libel battle against 36-year-old Rooney over a viral social media post after a High Court judge found it was “substantially true”.

In the post, which went viral in October 2019, Rooney said she had carried out a months-long “sting operation” and accused Vardy of leaking “false stories” about her private life to the press.

Her sleuthing efforts saw her dubbed “Wagatha Christie” in reference to the popular mystery writer.

The upcoming “verbatim production” will seek to reveal what went on behind the closed doors of the courtroom.

Producer Lloyd, who is also president of the Society of London Theatre, said: “The way the trial gripped the nation – myself included – demonstrated to me straight away how well this story would translate to the stage; the twists and turns of the case were so intriguing you couldn’t write it.”

Director Spirling, who is the artistic director of Theatre503, added: “This trial asks key questions about the complex boundaries between privacy and celebrity in modern Britain and what it is to be a so-called ‘Wag’.

“I’m thrilled to be collaborating with Eleanor, Eilene and Liv to bring this extraordinary courtroom script to life.”

The high-profile court case has already been secured for on-screen dramatisations, with Channel 4 creating a two-part film titled Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama.

The series will recreate the “high drama, high stakes High Court defamation case that followed, a case that had a huge impact on the lives of the two women at its heart and catapulted the two sparring legal teams into the spotlight, where much like Rooney and Vardy, their every move in the courtroom was dissected and scrutinised in the press”.

The show has also been created from court transcripts and will air later this year.

In August, Disney+ said it is also creating a three-part documentary series about the court battle with “exclusive access” to Rooney.