News
Comedy Theatre Renamed after Harold Pinter
 |
The Comedy Theatre has become The Harold Pinter Theatre today (Thursday 8th September 2011) after being renamed by The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) in honour of the late Nobel Prize-winning playwright who created such iconic works as The Caretaker and Betrayal. The name change is made ahead of the venue’s next production – Ariel Dorfman’s thriller Death and the Maiden starring Thandie Newton – which opens on Friday 21st October 2011 (following previews from Thursday 13th October). |
A Tribute to a Great British PlaywrightSpeaking about the name change, ATG joint Chief Executive Howard Panter said: “The work of Pinter has become an integral part of the history of the Comedy Theatre. The re-naming of one of our most successful West End theatres is a fitting tribute to a man who made such a mark on British theatre who, over his 50 year career, became recognised as one of the most influential modern British dramatists.” Comedies of Menace and Memory Plays |
|
 |
Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, London in October 1930. He began acting in regional English repertory productions in the early 1950s and married his first wife, the actress Vivien Merchant, in 1956. His writing career began with a production of The Room in 1957. His early works were described as ‘comedies of menace’ by theatre critics, perhaps the most famous being The Caretaker (1959) and The Homecoming (1964) - which reached Broadway in 1967. From the late 1960s he wrote a series of plays and sketches that explored comic vagaries, known as ‘memory plays’, including Silence (1969), No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978). He also wrote over 20 screenplays, including The Go-Between (1970) and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981). He married the author Antonia Fraser in 1980. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 and the Legion d’honneur in 2007. He died in December 2008 after a long battle with cancer. |
Unable to Escape Her PastDeath and the Maiden tells the story of a former South American political prisoner named Paulina who was raped by her captors, including a sadistic doctor whose face was always hidden. Years later, a man calling himself Dr Miranda is brought home by Paulina’s husband. Certain that his voice is the same as the man from her traumatic past, Paulina vows to extract a confession from the unfortunate stranger. |
|
Buy Death and the Maiden Tickets
Post Your Comments
Please log in to submit your comments.
