The Jamie Lloyd Company, Ambassador Theatre Group, Benjamin Lowy Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions and Glass Half Full Productions present an extraordinary season of Harold Pinter's one-act plays on the tenth anniversary of the Nobel Prize winner's death, performed in the theatre that bears his name.
Pinter at the Pinter is a unique event featuring all twenty short plays written by the greatest British playwright of the 20th Century. They have never been performed together in a season of this kind.
Artistic Director Jamie Lloyd said: "This season is an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the legacy of an icon. Harold Pinter revolutionised international theatre and the political force of his words feels more vital than ever."
The twenty plays will be presented in repertoire by a company of world-class creatives, many of whom were Harold Pinter's friends and collaborators. The cast includes Ron Cook, Danny Dyer, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Jane Horrocks, Celia Imrie, John MacMillan, Emma Naomi, Tracy Ann Oberman, Abraham Popoola, David Suchet and Nicholas Woodeson.
Direction is by Jamie Lloyd, Patrick Marber, Lyndsey Turner, Ed Stambollouian and Lia Williams.
Lloyd continued: "On the tenth anniversary of Harold Pinter's death, it feels very important to acknowledge his impact on our cultural and political lives. I am particularly excited to be introducing a huge body of Harold's work - by turns dangerous, weird, riotously funny, beautifully lyrical and explosively political - to our young, diverse audience."
Lady Antonia Fraser, Pinter's widow, said: "Presenting all of Harold's one-act plays is a great adventure. It's never been done before and I am deeply excited at the prospect of seeing them all together in one season. I do have a wistful thought: if only Harold could be here and experience it himself! This is the most appropriate and thrilling way to mark the 10th anniversary of his death in December 2008."
The eclectic season, which celebrates the remarkable breadth and range of Pinter's oeuvre, opens with a dynamic collection of his most potent and dangerous political plays - One for the Road, The New World Order, Mountain Language directed by Jamie Lloyd and Ashes to Ashes directed by Lia Williams, which play in repertoire with the playful and provocative The Lover and The Collection, which features David Suchet and John MacMillan. The famous modern classic The Dumb Waiter stars Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman and is paired with the fascinating psychological comedy drama A Slight Ache. Two pertinent and irresistibly funny social satires, Party Time and Celebration, feature Ron Cook, Celia Imrie, Abraham Popoola and Tracy Ann Oberman, whilst the spellbinding and atmospheric Landscape and A Kind of Alaska will star Tamsin Greig. There is a rare opportunity to see Pinter's first play, The Room, starring Jane Horrocks with Emma Naomi and Nicholas Woodeson and directed by Patrick Marber, alongside Victoria Station and Family Voices. Olivier Award winner Lyndsey Turner directs the emotionally raw and haunting Moonlight alongside inventive young director Ed Stambollouian's production of Night School - a quirky Pinter rarity. Special rehearsed readings of Tea Party, The Basement and Silence complete the season.
Adam Speers, Executive Producer of ATG Productions, said: "ATG renamed the Comedy Theatre the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2011, so we are delighted that after hosting a number of Harold Pinter productions over the years we get to celebrate Harold on this important anniversary."
Emily Vaughan-Barratt, ATG and The Jamie Lloyd Company Producer, said: "Having produced The Hothouse and The Homecoming with The Jamie Lloyd Company, it's fantastic to be working with so many artists whose careers were directly affected by the great playwright himself. Danny Dyer holds dear his relationship with Harold, which started when they worked together on the playwright's final play, Celebration; Patrick Marber directed the 40th anniversary production of The Caretaker; Celia Imrie has fond memories of playing Miss Cutts alongside Harold's Roote in The Hothouse; Lia Williams and Nicholas Woodeson are long-term Pinter collaborators - indeed, Lia starred in Harold's production of Mamet's Oleanna, alongside David Suchet."
Pinter 10
Pinter at the Pinter is part of the Pinter 10 partnership with the BFI, The Harold Pinter Estate and Faber & Faber, which is marking the 10th anniversary of Pinter's death with a series of events celebrating the life of the most important British playwright of the 20th Century.
BFI Southbank will commemorate the anniversary with a season of Pinter's film and television productions; Pinter on Screen: Power, Sex & Politics will take place at BFI Southbank throughout June and July. Further details will be announced soon.
About Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, London in 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pinter was lauded throughout his life as one of the greatest living playwrights, who had a revolutionary impact on how theatre was written and performed, and who it represented on stage. An establishment agitator who challenged injustice, he became as famous for his political interventions as for his writing later in his life.
His genius was recognised within his lifetime as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D'Honneur, the European Theatre Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature, in addition to 18 other honorary degrees.
After working as an actor under the stage name David Baron, Pinter went on to be a theatrical playwright, director, screenwriter and actor.
He wrote his first play The Room in 1957 and from there 29 plays, including The Birthday Party, The Hothouse, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man's Land, and Betrayal. Sketches include The Black and White, Request Stop, That's your Trouble, Night, and Precisely.
Pinter directed 27 theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray and scores of his own plays including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room, at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000.
In film he wrote 21 screenplays including The Pumpkin Eater, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sleuth.
He continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. He last acted two years before his death in 2006, when he appeared in Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape at The Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson.
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