PRICK UP YOUR EARS Plays Final Performances At The Comedy Theatre, Closes November 15

The final performance of Simon Bent's Prick Up Your Ears will take place at the Comedy Theatre on Sunday 15 November 2009.

Following a short regional tour, Prick Up Your Ears began previews at the Comedy Theatre on 17 September 2009. After Matt Lucas, who played Kenneth Halliwell, withdrew from the production soon after the official opening, his understudy, Michael Chadwick, took on the role before Con O'Neill joined Chris New (Joe Orton) and Gwen Taylor (Mrs Corden) on 22 October. Despite very good feedback and notices for Con O Neill's performance, the box office sales have not been sufficient to keep the show going, and so the producers have taken the difficult decision to close the show three weeks prior to its scheduled end date.

Inspired exclusively by the John Lahr biography and the diaries of Joe Orton, Prick Up Your Ears examines the private lives of these two extraordinary men. Prick Up Your Ears, a darkly funny and moving play, imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth was home alone. It tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple.

Set designs are by Peter McKintosh with lighting by Peter Mumford and sound by Gareth Owen. Prick Up Your Ears is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions and Lee Menzies.

Theatre: Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1Y 4DN
Dates: until 15 November 2009
Performances: Tuesday - Saturday 7.30pm, Saturdays matinees 2.30pm, Sundays 4pm
Weekday matinees at 2.30pm on 11 November
Box Office: 0870 0606637
Tickets: from £17.50 with best seats at £25.
Website: www.prickupyourearstheplay.com