When Timberlake Wertenbaker, one of Britain’s foremost playwrights who wrote the award-winning script Our Country’s Good, brings out a new play, the theatre world sits up and takes note – directors, actors and theatre-goers alike. And here in Watford we’re extremely lucky as the world premiere of Jefferson’s Garden is taking place on our doorstep, produced by the Watford Palace Theatre and directed by its artistic director Brigid Larmour.

Someone else who can’t quite believe his luck is actor William Hope, who stars as the titular Thomas Jefferson.

“Somebody said ‘Are you interested in doing a new Timberlake Wertenbaker play?’ and my instant response was ‘Yes please!’“ laughs the 59-year-old, who has appeared in the films Captain America: The First Avenger, Sherlock Holmes, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Aliens. “My feeling is that it could be a bit of a masterpiece.“ Jefferson’s Garden is both an epic and an intimate historical drama that follows the story of Christian, a young Quaker caught up in the American Revolution who finds himself forced to pick up a gun and betray his, and his family’s, deeply held pacifist beliefs. He falls in love with Susanna, a runaway slave who is fighting for the other side, having responded to the cunning British offer of freedom for any slave who fights with the British against the revoluntionaries. At the same time, Christian gets close to the seat of power through a friendship with Thomas Jefferson, and finds out that the man capable of drafting the inspirational words of the Declaration of Independence lives on a Virginia estate, including his now-famous garden, worked by slaves. Christian has to chart his way through these contradictions as he follows his dreams of freedom at the birth of modern America.

“It’s wonderful, incredibly rich,“ says William, “very epic and wonderful. Timberlake has given us something so rich, conveying really detailed subjects, and covered so many layers of human experience, but she’s a master of making it accessible and simple and entertaining. It’s very, very funny, we’ve been laughing ourselves silly in rehearsals.

“In my opinion, Timberlake is one of the very best writers, like Anton Chekhov or Arthur Miller. She covers so much ground in an effortless way, both for the actors and the audience. It’s engrossing, it’s really going to inspire you. I think it’s going to be a theatrical milestone.“ l Jefferson’s Garden is at Watford Palace Theatre, Clarendon Road, Watford from Thursday, February 5 to Saturday, February 21 at various times. Details: 01923 225671, watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk