Theatre News

Opening: Caretaker, Degrees, Little Dog & Daisy

18 January 2010

Amongst the major openings in London – in the West End and further afield – this week are:

OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 18 January 2010 (previews from 12 January), the Liverpool Everyman revival of Harold Pinter’s modern classic The Caretaker, starring Jonathan Pryce as the tramp Davies, transfers to Trafalgar Studios 1 to coincide with the play’s 50th anniversary (See News, 6 Nov 2009).

The production, which has a limited season to 17 April 2010, marks the first major UK revival of the play since the Nobel Prize-winning playwright’s death last Christmas (See News, 25 Dec 2008), and will be the first West End Pinter production since then.

ALSO TONIGHT, Michael Pennington and Rosamund Bartlett introduce A Jubilee for Anton Chekhov, a week of performances and events at Hampstead Theatre in celebration of the Russian playwright’s 150th birthday (See News, 2 Dec 2009).

OPENING TUESDAY, 19 January 2010 (previews from 7 January), Anthony Head, Lesley Manville and Obi Abili lead the cast in David Grindley’s Old Vic revival of John Guare’s Olivier Award-winning play Six Degrees of Separation, based on a true story about a Manhattan con artist. Until 3 April 2010.

ALSO ON TUESDAY (previews from 13 January),Off-Broadway sell-out Rites of Privacy, written and performed by David Rhodes, has its UK premiere at the New End Theatre, where it continues to 14 February 2010.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 20 January 2010 (previews from 8 January), Douglas Carter Beane’s Broadway comedy The Little Dog Laughed opens at the Garrick Theatre, starring Rupert Friend, Tamsin Greig, Gemma Arterton and Harry Lloyd (See News, 25 Sep 2009).

The play, which is currently booking to 10 April, is a cautionary tale of Hollywood film actor Mitchell (Friend) who wants to come out of the closet, his agent Diane (Greig) who wants him to stay in it and the love triangle created when Mitch falls for rent boy Alex, who has a girlfriend named Ellen (Arterton).

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Doug Lucie‘s 30-something comedy Progress, which questions whether a combination of security and excitement in a relationship is ever possible, is revived at the Union Theatre, marking the play’s first major outing since 1986. Until 6 February.

OPENING THURSDAY, 21 January 2010 (previews from 19 January), the Young Vic hosts the UK premiere of I Am Yusuf and this is my Brother, Amir Nizar Zuabi’s powerful story of life in Palestine during the 1948 ‘catastrophe’. Until 6 February.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 19 January), Denise Deegan‘s schoolgirl comedy Daisy Pulls it Off, centring on the adventures of super achieving scholarship girl Daisy Meredith at the snobby Grangewood School for Young Ladies, opens at the Arts Theatre, following successful runs at Baron’s Court Theatre in 2008 and 2009. Until 6 February.