Russell Tovey, Sir Antony Sher, Penelope Wilton, Jessica Barden, Kate O’Flynn, Hayley Squires, and Luke Thallon have joined the Harold Pinter celebration Pinter at the Pinter, which will feature all 20 of Pinter’s one-act plays, running from September 2018 to February 2019 at the playwright's namesake theatre.
Sher and O’Flynn, who impressed in Anatomy of a Suicide at the Royal Court, join Paapa Essiedu and Maggie Steed in the first evening of the season, which includes One for the Road, The New World Order, Mountain Language, and Ashes to Ashes, directed by Jamie Lloyd and Lia Williams.
BAFTA nominee Squires and stage and screen star Tovey join John Macmillan and David Suchet in Lloyd’s production of the comedic The Lover and The Collection.
Fresh from Netflix’s cult hit The End of the F**king World, Barden will lead the Pinter oddity Night School.
Following his performances in The Inheritance (Young Vic) and Albion (Almeida), Thallon has been cast in the Patrick Marber-directed The Room/Victoria Station/Family Voices, with a cast including Rupert Graves, Jane Horrocks, Emma Naomi, and Nicholas Woodeson.
The world premiere of Pinter’s newly discovered satirical sketch, The Pres and an Officer, an anarchic attack on the presidency, will be performed alongside One for the Road, The New World Order, Mountain Language, and Ashes to Ashes from September 6 to October 20, directed by Lloyd. The role of the President will be played by a variety of surprise guest stars across the short run.
Friend and long-term Pinter collaborator Wilton (Downton Abbey) will make 12 special guest appearances, performing the witty monologue Tess, written for her by Pinter, beginning November 19 as part of the performances of Landscape and A Kind of Alaska, starring Keith Allen and Tamsin Greig.
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Tovey, seen in the London mounting of Angels in America, said in a statement, “Pinter’s work brings danger and wit and sexiness and magic and coolness to the Theatre and this season will bring all of that and more, like a seriously high-end boxset binge.”
Sher added, “This is a very special project for me—I’ve always longed to be in a Pinter play, and now at last I’ve got my chance. And what a play this is! One for the Road shows Pinter at the height of his powers, I believe. He’s taking on a truly difficult subject, torture, yet writing with such wit, danger and lightness of touch, it's breathtaking.”
The complete company follows: Keith Allen, Jessica Barden, Ron Cook, Phil Davies, Danny Dyer, Paapa Essiedu, Martin Freeman, Rupert Graves, Tamsin Greig, Jane Horrocks, Celia Imrie, John Macmillan, Emma Naomi, Tracy Ann Oberman, Kate O’Flynn, Abraham Popoola, Sir Antony Sher, John Simm, Hayley Squires, Maggie Steed, David Suchet, Luke Thallon, Russell Tovey, Penelope Wilton, and Nicholas Woodeson. Mark Rylance will make two special charity performances of Art, Truth and Politics, Pinter’s Nobel Prize Lecture, in aid of the Stop the War Coalition.
The productions will feature design by Soutra Gilmour, lighting by Jon Clark and Richard Howell, and sound and music by George Dennis and Ben and Max Ringham.
The season is presented by The Jamie Lloyd Company, ATG Productions, Ben Lowy Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, and Glass Half Full Productions.
For the complete lineup and ticket information, visit pinteratthepinter.
