Maggie Gyllenhaal to star in ‘The Village Bike’ off-Broadway

Maggie Gyllenhaal will return to the stage next spring as a pregnant wife who tries to pedal off her libido in “The Village Bike,” producers announced Tuesday.

MCC Theater’s off-Broadway production will begin performances May 21 and open June 9 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York. Obie winner Sam Gold will direct.

Gyllenhaal will play a woman whose conflicting sexual desires and need for stability lead her on a bike tour across the countryside.

PHOTOS: Hollywood stars onstage

The play premiered in 2011 at London’s Royal Court Theater and earned its author, Penelope Skinner, a most promising playwright award from the Evening Standard.

Gyllenhaal, whose on-screen credits include “The Dark Knight,” “Crazy Heart” and the upcoming “White House Down,” has starred onstage in off-Broadway productions of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and “Three Sisters.”

She also appeared in a 2000 production of “Closer” at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

MCC Theater’s 2013-14 season also features Robert Askins’ “Hand to God”; “The Snow Geese,” starring Mary-Louise Parker; and John Pollono’s “Small Engine Repair,” which had an L.A. run in 2011.

ALSO:

Neil Patrick Harris returning to Broadway in ‘Hedwig’

All hail the queen: Helen Mirren sets ‘Audience’ record

Arts and culture were fastest-growing philanthropic cause in 2012

MORE

TONYS 2013: Nominees, photos and full coverage of the awards

CHEAT SHEET: Spring Arts Preview

PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures