Bedroom Closes Doors at Duke of York’s, 19 Jun

Peter Hall’s Rose Kingston revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Seventies comedy Bedroom Farce has brought forward its closing date in the West End. Following dates in Kingston last autumn, it opened on 30 March 2010 (previews from 24 March) at the Duke of York’s theatre, where it was originally booking until 10 July. It will now finish on 19 June.

Bedroom Farce centres on four couples who are at different stages in their relationships and whose lives intersect over the course of one very chaotic evening across three bedrooms.

Premiered at Ayckbourn’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 1975, the play had its London premiere at the National Theatre, directed by Hall, in 1977 and subsequently transferred to the West End where it ran until September 1979. It was last revived in the West End in 2002, with a cast including Richard Briers and June Whitfield (See News, 27 Feb 2002).

Hall’s new production was first presented as part of the Rose’s two-month Behind Closed Doors programme, which examined what happens in the privacy of other people’s homes via revivals, with Bedroom Farce running in rep from 15 October to 28 November 2009 (previews from 1 October) with Strindberg’s Miss Julie, directed by Stephen Unwin, who succeeded Hall as the theatre’s artistic director. It marks the first West End transfer for the Rose, which opened in January 2008 after more than six years and £11 million in development.

In the West End, the cast comprises Finty Williams, Daniel Betts, Orlando Seale, Rachel Pickup, Tony Gardner, Sara Crowe, Jenny Seagrove and David Horovitch. The production is designed by Simon Higlett, with costumes by Mark Bouman and Mia Flodquist, lighting by Peter Mumford and sound by Gregory Clarke.

The next production scheduled for the Duke of York’s is stage thriller Ghost Stories, co-written and co-directed by The League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson and Derren Brown collaborator Andy Nyman (who also stars), which will run from 13 July to 7 November 2010 (previews from 25 June).