DOCTOR WHO's Pearl Mackie Joins Cast of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Sonia Friedman Productions has just announced that Pearl Mackie will join the cast of a new production of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, in her first role since playing 'Bill Potts', the Doctor's companion, in the latest series of the BBC's Doctor Who.

Pearl Mackie will perform alongside recently announced cast members Toby Jones, Stephen Mangan and Zoë Wanamaker for this major revival directed by Ian Rickson. The production will run at the Harold Pinter Theatre, 60 years since the play's debut, from 9th January to 14th April 2018 with an Opening Night on Thursday 18th January 2018. Tickets are now on sale. Further casting is still to be announced.

Pearl Mackie currently stars opposite Peter Capaldi in the BBC's Doctor Who as the Doctor's companion 'Bill Potts'. Her final appearance will be in this year's Christmas Special, which will air on 25th December. Pearl's casting was announced in the original short film Friend from the Future, written by Steven Moffat. Also starring Matt Lucas and Michelle Gomez, the tenth series of the globally popular show premiered in April 2017 to critical acclaim.

From 2015-6, Pearl appeared in the National Theatre's Olivier and Tony award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. She has also starred as 'Nina' in Theatre503's 2012 play Only Human and co-starred in the European premiere of Aurin Squire's Obama-ology at the Finborough Theatre. In 2013, Pearl appeared alongside Martin Freeman, Michael Socha and Maxine Peake in the comedy film Svengali, directed by John Hardwick.

Further theatre credits include: A Mad World, My Masters (2015); Hello Kind World (2014); Crystal Springs (2014); Home (2012); The Crucible (2010); And The Comedy of Errors (2010).

Pearl Mackie said: "I'm delighted to be back in the West End working with such a prolific director like Ian Rickson - and an incredible cast - on this rich, dark and enthralling play. I love how Pinter creates character and I feel very lucky to work on one of his best-known plays."

Stanley Webber (Toby Jones) is the only lodger at Meg (Zoë Wanamaker) and Petey Boles' sleepy seaside boarding house. The unsettling arrival of enigmatic strangers Goldberg (Stephen Mangan) and McCann disrupts the humdrum lives of the inhabitants and their friend Lulu (Pearl Mackie), and mundanity soon becomes menace when a seemingly innocent birthday party turns into a disturbing nightmare. Truth and alliances hastily shift in Pinter's brilliantly mysterious dark-comic masterpiece about the absurd terrors of the everyday.

The production will be designed by the Quay Brothers, with lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Simon Baker, music by Stephen Warbeck and casting by Amy Ball.

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