Stubbs in New Cast for Extended Closer Run

The 'strictly limited' 12-week run of Patrick Marber's Closer at the Lyric Theatre has been extended by another 15 weeks to Saturday 26 September 1998. The engagement had already been extended by five weeks in April. The new run will include a new cast, which takes over from Monday 13 July and features Imogen Stubbs along with Tom Mannion and Kate Ashfield.

The current West End cast - Frances Barber ('Anna'), Neil Pearson ('Larry'), Liza Walker ('Alice') and Lloyd Owen ('Dan') - will play for an additional four weeks until 11 July. Owen will return with the three newcomers.

Imogen Stubbs will play 'Anna', Tom Mannion 'Larry' and Kate Ashfield 'Alice'. Stubbs has most recently appeared in the world premiere of Ben Elton's Blast from the Past at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; her last West End appearance was in the Peter Hall revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She is well known for her roles in films such as Jack and Sarah.

Mannion has played leading roles at the RSC (including 'Christian' in Cyrano de Bergerac in London and on Broadway), the RNT and the Almeida. Ashfield has recently appeared in Shopping and F***ing, Blasted and Peaches, all for the Royal Court.

Amongst its many accolades, Closer has won the 1997 Time Out Award for Best Play in the West End, 1997 Evening Standard Best Comedy Award, the 1997 Critics' Circle Best Play Award and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Marber was also a runner- up for the 1997 Lloyds' Playwright of the Year Award and actress Sally Dexter earned an Olivier nomination for Best Actress.

The 'play for the 90s' features a quartet caught up in a web of love, sex and betrayal. It played for two sell-out runs at the National last year - first at the Cottesloe and then the Lyttelton venue - before moving to the West End. A Broadway production of Closer is expected to open later this year.

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