Butley at Duchess from 1 June with Dominic West

Butley, a comedy by Simon Gray, opens at the Duchess Theatre 6 June 2011, following previews from 1 June - booking to 27 August 2011.

Starring Dominic West (Ben Butley), Penny Downie (Edna Shaft), Paul McGann (Reg Nuttall)

Directed by Lindsay Posner, designed by Peter McKintosh, produced by Mark Rubinstein, Eleanor Lloyd, Lee Menzies and Dena Hammerstein/Pam Pariseau.

Ben Butley is having a monumentally bad day. So bad, he's making sure everyone else has a worse one. His estranged wife has taken up with the most boring man in London. His beloved protege has found a new benefactor. And in an unprecedented act of betrayal even the English department's resident failure has a book deal. Butley's trusty arsenal - mischievous irony and gleeful troublemaking - have never failed him yet. Might they finally prove to be the weapons of his own tragic self-destruction?

Dominic West is best known on TV as Jimmy McNulty in five seasons of "The Wire". His recent London stage credits include "Life Is A Dream" at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009; "Rock 'n'Roll" at the Duke of York's in 2006; "Voysey Inheritance" at the Lyttelton, NT in 2006.

Penny Downie's recent London stage credits include "Helen" at the Shakespeare's Globe in 2009; Gertrude in "Hamlet" RSC at Novello in 2009; "Scenes from the Back of Beyond" at the Royal Court in 2006; "Dinner" at the National Theatre & Wyndham's in 2002/03.

Paul McGann London stage credits include "Helen" at the Shakespeare's Globe in 2009; "Mourning Becomes Electra" at the Lyttelton, NT in 2003. His TV credits include Percy Topliss in the BBC series "The Monocled Mutineer"; "Withnail and I" and as the eighth Doctor in Doctor Who.