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Pinter's No Man's Land, Directed by Goold, Concludes London Run Jan. 3
By Mark Shenton
03 Jan 2009
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Olivier Award-winning director Rupert Goold.
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The current West End revival of the late Sir Harold Pinter's No Man's Land plays its final performance at the Duke of York's Jan. 3 at the end of its scheduled run, which began Sept. 27 prior to an official opening Oct. 7.
The production, which transferred from Dublin's Gate Theatre, is directed by Rupert Goold and stars Michael Gambon, David Bradley, David Walliams and Nick Dunning.
The production features designs by Giles Cadle, lighting by Neil Austin and sound design and music by Adam Cork.
No Man's Land originally premiered in a National Theatre production (then based at the Old Vic) in 1975, with Peter Hall directing a cast that included John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. It was last revived in London at the National Theatre in 2001 when Pinter himself directed a production that starred Corin Redgrave and John Wood; Pinter starred as Hirst in an earlier Almeida production in 2001, directed by David Leveaux.
The play revolves around two aging writers, Hirst and Spooner, who meet on Hampstead Heath, and return home for a late-night session of witty banter, sinister power games, and the worship of alcohol, watched by Hirst's henchman, Briggs and Foster. It is described in press materials as "part mystery drama, part homage to the ghosts of the past and the fiction of memory."
Gambon plays Hirst. He has previously appeared in productions of Pinter's Betrayal, Mountain Language and The Caretaker and in 2005 played Lambert in a staged reading of Celebration at the Albery as part of the Gate Theatre, Dublin's celebration of Pinter's 75th birthday. Two years later he reprised this role in John Crowley's television film for Channel 4. Amongst his extensive theatre credits, he has also starred in the original production of Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Royal Court, opposite Daniel Craig, and in Beckett's Endgame with Lee Hall (Albery Theatre) and Eh Joe at the Duke of York's.
Bradley plays Spooner. He was most recently seen in London in the one-man play The Quiz (at the Trafalgar Studios). He has previously appeared in Pinter's The Caretaker (Sheffield Crucible, then London's Tricycle) and The Homecoming (National Theatre). He has also played the title role in Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, The Night Season, The Mysteries and , all for the National Theatre; the title role in Titus Andronicus for the Royal Shakespeare Company; and Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya for the Donmar Warehouse.
Walliams, who plays Foster, is best known for his work on TV as half of the comedy duo behind "Little Britain," in which he stars opposite Matt Lucas. He recently played Frankie Howerd in "Rather You Than Me" for the BBC and Greville White in Stephen Poliakoff's "Capturing Mary," also for the BBC.
Dunning, who plays Briggs, has appeared in Don Carlos for Dublin's Rough Magic Theatre, Betrayal for the Gate Theatre Dublin, The Home Place and The Homecoming at the Gate Theatre Dublin and the Comedy Theatre, Our Country's Good for the Royal Court and The Taming of the Shrew for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Goold, whose Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth transferred to the West End last year and then Broadway, is artistic director of Headlong Theatre, where his credits include Rough Crossings, Faustus, Paradise Lost and Restoration. He recently directed Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days of Judas Iscariot for the Almeida Theatre, and later this year he will direct Cameron Mackintosh's new revival of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
No Man's Land is produced in London by Sonia Friedman Productions (currently represented by Boeing-Boeing on Broadway) and Michael Colgan, director of Dublin's Gate Theatre. Colgan has previously presented four major festivals of Pinter's work, including two at the Gate in 1994 and 1997, and subsequently at New York's Lincoln Center. The Gate is also preparing for another major retrospective of his work in Dublin to take place in 2010.
Harold Pinter, the dramatist, actor, essayist, novelist, screenwriter, poet and director, died Dec. 24 at age 78. Pinter's The Homecoming won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1967. The Caretaker was nominated for Best Play in 1962, and Old Times was nominated for Best Play in 1972. In 1969 Mr. Pinter received a nomination for Best Direction of a Play for staging Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth. Mr. Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005.
For tickets for No Man's Land, contact the box office at 0870 060 6623 or visit www.nml-westend.com.
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