A star of acclaimed series The Wire, The Affair and The Crown is set to appear on stage in Kent.

Dominic West will perform in Doctor Faustus at Canterbury’s newest theatre, The Malthouse, which cost £13 million to build three years ago.

Producers of the play had been in negotiations with the 52-year-old for a “couple of days”, before he agreed to tread the boards at the St Stephen’s Road venue, owned by the King's School, next month.

Bosses stress the leading man was not enticed to come to Canterbury – which he had never visited until earlier this week – by the money, but by “the material, content and cast”.

Executive producer Ray Mia told KentOnline: “I want to be very clear, please don’t think it’s like we paid the big bucks – this is not a matter of the cheque book talking.

“What brought Dominic here is he’s not been to Canterbury before, he’s not done Faustus. It’s going to be produced in a fantastic way and it will be available for global distribution for 2023.

“This is also because of the rest of the cast, which is a who’s who of up-and-coming talent and stalwart, nailed-on Royal Shakespeare Company bigwigs. Dominic wants to be part of that.”

Mr West is best known for his role as Jimmy McNulty in The Wire – which is widely heralded as one of the best TV series ever made.

He also starred in Sky show The Affair alongside Ruth Wilson and is set to play Prince Charles in the latest season of The Crown on Netflix.

Meanwhile, he has appeared in films like Tomb Raider, Pride, 300, Mona Lisa Smile and Chicago.

Mr West, who will play Dr Faustus in June, is set to act opposite Canterbury panto Dame Ben Roddy.

“What we’re doing here is bringing the best actors, best directors and best musicians,” Mr Mia added.

“It will be distributed as immersive audio theatre next year – nobody’s ever done this before – and it’ll be available on a number of streaming platforms.

“It will be videoed in very high-resolution as well, but we’re still working on the finer details of this.”

Mr Mia says Mr Roddy’s role in the Christopher Marlowe tragedy will be held back as a “surprise” for audiences.

The play – which will run over two nights – will form part of a Malthouse Theatre season called the Marlowe Sessions.

Taking place between June 2 and June 25, the series of shows will cover the Elizabethan writer’s completed attributed works.

Adrian Schiller, who starred in Netflix’s The Last Kingdom, has also signed on to appear in one of the performances.

“The rest of the crew may not be household names, but in theatreland we’ve caused major ripples by bringing these people down here,” Mr Mia continued.

“We’re working on the basis of doing this every year at the Malthouse and shifting our content to different playwrights.

“Our ticket sales at the moment are being driven by people in London going ‘what on earth is going on down in Canterbury?’ because we’ve got posters at St Pancras and on the Piccadilly Line.

“We did look at all the venues, but selected the Malthouse because it’s a cauldron, it’s a real bear pit – there’s a real proximity to the audience.”

Mr Mia says more “big names” of TV and film will be announced to appear over the course of next month.

For tickets and more information, visit malthousetheatre.co.uk.