1st Night Photos: Lucas' Prick Enters West End

Guests including Graham Norton, Ian McKellen, David Walliams and Joe Orton's sisters Leonie Orton and Marilyn Lock were at the Comedy Theatre last night (30 September 2009) to welcome Simon Bent's Prick Up Your Ears, starring Matt Lucas and Chris New, to the West End (See News, 22 Jun 2009).

Prick Up Your Ears, a darkly comic play inspired by playwright Orton's diaries and the John Lahr biography of the same name (also the inspiration for Stephen Frears' 1987 film, scripted by Alan Bennett), examines the relationship between the two writers which ended tragically in 1967 when Kenneth Halliwell (Lucas) bludgeoned Orton (New) to death before committing suicide.

The play imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth Halliwell was home alone. It tells the story behind the domestic life of Joe Orton and Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple.

TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF PRICK UP YOUR EARS' 1st NIGHT PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE "NEXT >" LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.
PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.

For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer Dan Wooller was at the Comedy Theatre for the curtain call, and at the Cafe de Paris for the after party, where guests included: Neil Pearson, Graham Norton, Maria McErlane, David Walliams (and his mum Kathleen Williams), Dudley Sutton, Mika, Ian McKellen, Polly Stenham, Harry Treadaway, Simon Callow, Leonie Orton, Marilyn Lock and Martin Sherman.

Matt Lucas, best known for his work with comedy partner David Walliams on BBC sketch show Little Britain, last appeared on the West End stage when he took over the role of Leigh Bowery in the original production of Boy George's Taboo in 2002.

Prick Up Your Ears, which arrives in the West End following a regional tour, is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions and Lee Menzies, and is currently booking at the Comedy until 6 December 2009.

** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to PRICK UP YOUR EARS on 12 November 2009 – inc a FREE poster & access to our exclusive post-show Q&A - all for only £34.50!! - click here for details **

- by Theo Bosanquet

Related Content

Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	Prick Up Your Ears Listing Page

Internal Links
	Bent's Ears Closing Early in West End, 15 Nov - 3rd Nov 2009 news
	Review Round-up: Critics Prick Up Their Ears? - 2nd Oct 2009 roundup
	Prick Up Your Ears - 1st Oct 2009 reviews
	1st Night TV: Lucas & New Prick West End's Ears - 1st Oct 2009 tv