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Walter Hosts Another Buffini Dinner at Wyndhams

London will get a second helping of Moira Buffini's Dinner this winter, when the black comedy transfers to the West End's Wyndhams Theatre where it opens for a limited season from 9 December 2003, following previews from 3 December.

Dinner premiered last November in the National Theatre's Lyttelton Loft, a 100-seat studio specially created for the NT's five-month Transformation season, which was extended to accommodate the production directed by the playwright's sister Fiona Buffini. The play was nominated for a 2003 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best New Comedy.

To the dinner of the title, Paige has invited an artist, a scientist and a sexpot to celebrate the publication of her husband's bestseller. The arrival of Mike, marooned in the foggy lane having crashed his van, provides an unexpected addition to the evening's entertainment. A silent waiter, sourced from an obscure website, completes the picture. Primordial Soup is first on the menu...

In the West End, Harriet Walter - who is currently touring in a revival of Terrence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea (See News, 29 Aug 2003) - will recreate her role as party hostess Paige with Penny Downie (Henry V, Sleep with Me, An Enemy of the People, The Prisoner's Dilemma, Death and the Maiden) playing the artist.

Other members of the cast – who, at the National, were Catherine McCormack, Nicholas Farrell, Adrian Rawlins and Christopher Etteridge – have not yet been confirmed.

Currently at Wyndhams, the season of stand-up continues with Bill Bailey (to 25 October) and Lenny Henry (from 10 to 29 November). The hole left by the departure of Michael Barrymore has been filled with a limited season of the Jessie Matthews musical Over My Shoulder, which stars Anne Rogers and runs for 16 performances only from 27 October to 8 November 2003. (See News, 19 Sep & 9 Oct 2003)

- by Terri Paddock

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