British actor Damian Lewis is set to return to London's West End stage after a five-year absence.

The Homeland star will tread the boards in David Mamet's American Buffalo next year (15), a play he calls a "tragic tale for our times".

Lewis insisted he wanted to hold off his stage return until he found a "great play".

He tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, "I wanted to get back to the stage, but I didn't want to do it unless it was a great play."

The star revealed he realized he wanted to one day star in American Buffalo when he saw William H. Macy in an adaptation of the play 14 years ago.

He recalled relating to the characters in the show and feeling the "claustrophobia of these three disenfranchised working class men".

In his last stint in the West End he starred opposite Keira Knightley in The Misanthrope in 2010.