Opening: Private Lives, Stories, Party & Nothings

Amongst the major London openings – in the West End and further afield – this week are:
OPENING TONIGHT, Monday 1 March 2010 (previews from 24 February), Ghost Stories are told at west London’s Lyric Hammersmith, for over-16s only, until 3 April (See News, 29 Jan 2010). A “truly terrifying theatrical experience” is promised by co-creators and directors Jeremy Dyson (of League of Gentlemen fame) and Andy Nyman (Derren Brown’s long-time collaborator). Nyman also performs in the show.

OPENING TUESDAY, 2 March 2010 (preview 1 March), Tom Basden‘s Edinburgh Fringe First-winning satire Party transfers to the West End’s Arts Theatre, with a cast led by Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Tim Key (See News, 8 Jan 2010). In a humble garden shed in deepest suburbia, four young idealists have decided to form a new political party to save the world from itself. The limited season continues until 13 March.
ALSO ON TUESDAY, Philip Ridley’s BNP-based drama Moonfleece receives its professional premiere as part of the 2010 East Festival at the new Rich Mix multi-platform arts centre in Bethnal Green, where it continues until 13 March (See News, 8 Jan 2010). The production marks the first premiere of a Ridley play in the East End where the playwright was born and still lives, works and takes part in community and outreach work.

ALSO ON TUESDAY, Les Enfants Terribles’ Ernest and the Pale Moon, inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Alfred Hitchcock, visits Greenwich Theatre this week as part of a national tour.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 3 March 2010 (previews from 24 February), Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall returns to the London stage to play Amanda opposite Matthew Macfadyen’s Elyot in Richard Eyre’s new revival of Noel Coward’s classic 1929 comedy Private Lives, which comes to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre, following a brief regional tour (See News, 23 Oct 2009). Lisa Dillon and Simon Paisley Day co-star in the production, which runs until 1 May.
ALSO ON WEDNESDAY (preview 2 March), Douglas Maxwell’s new thriller Promises, Promises, about a teacher’s concern for a Somalian student whose family think she’s possessed, arrives at Soho Theatre for a run to 13 March.

OPENING THURSDAY, 4 March 2010 (previews from 25 February), Luc Bondy directs Schnitzler’s 1895 dark drama about a young man whose affair with a married woman is discovered by the woman’s husband, Sweet Nothings, in a new version by David Harrower at the Young Vic until 10 April (See News, 13 Oct 2009). After the Young Vic, the production visits Kingston’s Rose and Warwick.