Closer Extends West End Run

Patrick Marber's award-winning play about the vicissitudes of modern love, Closer, has extended its run at the Lyric Theatre by five weeks to 11 July 1998. The play transferred to the Lyric from the Royal National Theatre on 31 March, following previews from 19 March, for a 'limited 12-week season only'.

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 ran 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. Liza Walker, who won rave reviews as 'Alice' at the National, transferred to the Lyric where she was joined by three new cast members - Neil Pearson, Frances Barber and Lloyd Owen.

Marber, who also directed Closer, is flexing his directorial muscles again later this summer with the European premiere of David Mamet's new play, The Old Neighborhood, at the Royal Court Downstairs (opens 23 June with previews from 17 June). The production stars Zoe Wanamaker, who scooped the Best Actress Olivier from Dexter, and Colin Stinton.

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