Mammoth Harold Pinter at the Pinter season to star Martin Freeman, Danny Dyer, David Suchet and Tamsin Greig
Jamie Lloyd has announced a season of all Harold Pinter's short plays
Jamie Lloyd has announced a mammoth season of Harold Pinter plays at the Harold Pinter Theatre to mark ten years since the renowned playwright died.
Pinter at the Pinter will see 17 plays performed over the course of 7 double/triple/quadrouple bills which will run in repertory, with casts including Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, David Suchet, Danny Dyer and Jane Horrocks.
The first Pinter at the Pinter production will open on 6th September, with the final production closing on 23rd February 2019. Tickets for all Pinter at the Pinter shows are on sale now.
The plays will be directed by Lloyd, Lyndsey Turner, Patrick Marber, Lia Williams, and Ed Stambollouian.
The first production will consist of four plays: One for the Road, New World Order, Mountain Language and Ashes to Ashes. One for the Road (about a family imprisoned by a totalitarian regime) and New World Order (which sees two men discuss how they will torture a third man) will be directed by Lloyd, and Lia Williams will direct Ashes to Ashes (which sees a man called Devlin question a woman called Rebecca). It will run from 6th September to 20th October.
Next up, Lloyd will direct The Lover (about a middle class couple and their whimpering sex life) and The Collection (which sees a young fashion designer accused of sleeping with another man's wife). The cast for the plays includes David Suchet, best-known for playing Hercule Poirot in the ITV series, and will run from 13th September to 20th October.
Moonlight and Night School will run from 1st November. Lyndsey Turner will direct Moonlight, which sees a former civil servant lying on his deathbed, while Ed Stambollouian will direct Night School, about a criminal who returns home from time in jail.
Tamsin Greig is then featured in the cast for Lloyd's productions of Landscape and A Kind of Alaska. Landscape sees two characters on stage talking unable to hear each other, while A Kind of Alaska follows a woman who wakes up from a 30-year coma with the mind of a 16-year-old. They run from 25th October to 8th December.
Patrick Marber will then direct a triple bill of The Room, Victoria Station and Family Voices. The Room is Pinter's very first play, while Victoria Station is a short play about a taxi driver and Family Voices sees a mother and son exchange letters. The cast includes Jane Horrocks, Emma Naomi and Nicholas Woodesen, and it runs from 13th December 2018 to 26th January 2019.
Lloyd will direct a double bill of Party Time and Celebration from 20th December to 26th January. Party Time sees a London high-flyer throw a party for his friends, whilst Celebration focusses on three couples having dinner in an expensive restaurant. The cast includes Celia Imrie, Tracy-Ann Oberman, and Abraham Popoola.
The final production in the season is a double bill of The Dumb Waiter and A Slight Ache. The Dumb Waiter sees two hit-men waiting for news of their next target in a basement, while A Slight Ache is about a couple unnerved by a silent matchseller who appears at their gate. Lloyd directs Martin Freeman and Danny Dyer from 31st January to 23rd February 2019.
Harold Pinter was one of Britain's most celebrated playwrights, known for writing plays such as The Birthday Party, No Man's Land and The Homecoming. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for a career that spanned over 50 years. He died aged 78 on Christmas Eve in 2008.
Pinter at the Pinter Tickets at the Harold Pinter Theatre are on sale today.
Photo credits Tamara Craiu (flickr), Fat Les (flickr), Bryan Ledgard (flickr) and Phil Chambers (wikipedia)
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