Stoppard's Invention Closes Early in West End

Tom Stoppard's latest play The Invention of Love, currently playing at the Haymarket Theatre, has announced early closing notices. The play opened in the West End on 3 November 1998 and had been booking to 25 April 1999. It will now close next month on Saturday 6 February after a 14-week run.

The critically acclaimed play, directed by former RNT artistic director Sir Richard Eyre, focuses on the private life of A.E. Housman, the classics professor, poet and author of A Shropshire Lad. It stars John Wood as the elderly Housman who looks back on his young self with remorse for the secret and unrequited love of his friend Moses Jackson and his perceived failings compared to his more flamboyant and openly homosexual contemporary Oscar Wilde.

The production first opened at the Royal National Theatre in 1997. It played in repertory to sell-out audiences, first in the RNT's smaller Cottesloe and then in the Lyttelton Theatre. The Invention of Love won the 1997 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best New Play as well as earning Eyre Best Director accolade in both the Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards. It also received Laurence Olivier Award nominations for Best New Play and Best Actor for John Wood.

Arcadia, the last Stoppard play to appear at the Haymarket and another RNT transfer, ran for 13 months in 1994/95.

Fascinating Aida - the cabaret trio of Dillie Keane, Adele Anderson and Issy Van Randwyck - have stepped in to fill the breach in the Haymarket's 1999 schedule with their new show Tongue in Chic. This is the trio first West End outing in two years. The new show is directed by Clarke Peters, the creator of Five Guys Named Moe who is also currently starring as 'Billy Flynn' in Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre. Tongue in Chic opens 8 February and is booking to 6 March 1999.

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