A thrilling cast of stars will take part in a one-off charity gala celebrating the life and work of Harold Pinter. The event Happy Birthday, Harold will be held on Pinter’s birthday, the 10th October, in the theatre which bears his name, as a part of the Pinter at the Pinter season, which has just opened to critical acclaim. A limited number of public tickets are now on sale.
Tom Hiddleston, Kit Harington, Simon Russell Beale, broadcaster Jon Snow, Jade Anouka, Kristin Scott Thomas, Frances de la Tour, Felicity Kendal, Indira Varma, Zawe Ashton, Gawn Grainger, Forbes Masson, Samuel West and Sheila Hancock will appear alongside Pinter at the Pinter company members including Lee Evans, David Suchet, Tamsin Greig, Paapa Essiedu, John Simm, Patrick Marber, Russell Tovey, Gary Kemp and Lia Williams.
The exciting evening will feature a variety of Pinter’s work including extracts from his full-length plays, poems, speeches and sketches, directed by Jamie Lloyd and co-directed by Jonathan Glew. Lighting is by Richard Howell, with sound design by Ben and Max Ringham. Season design is by Soutra Gilmour.
The confirmed cast for this special event includes Jade Anouka, Zawe Ashton, Simon Russell Beale, Ron Cook, Jon Culshaw, Tom Edden, Paapa Essiedu, Lee Evans, Gawn Grainger, Tamsin Greig, Sheila Hancock, Kit Harington, John Heffernan, Tom Hiddleston, Gary Kemp, Felicity Kendal, John Macmillan, Patrick Marber, Forbes Masson, Kate O’Flynn, Jonjo O’Neill, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Simm, Jon Snow, Hayley Squires, Maggie Steed, David Suchet, Frances de la Tour, Russell Tovey, Indira Varma, Samuel West and Lia Williams. Further casting will be announced.
Happy Birthday, Harold is in aid of Amnesty International and Chance to Shine - two of Harold Pinter’s favoured charities.
The Pinter at the Pinter season has a commitment to accessible pricing with the aim of developing a new, more diverse West End audience, The Jamie Lloyd Company is offering 25,000 tickets across the season for £15 for people aged under 30, key workers and those receiving job seekers allowance.
Happy Birthday, Harold and Pinter at the Pinter are presented by The Jamie Lloyd Company, ATG Productions, Benjamin Lowy Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions and Glass Half Full Productions to mark the 10th Anniversary of Harold Pinter’s death.
About Pinter at the Pinter
Pinter at the Pinter is an unparalleled event featuring all short plays written by the greatest British playwright of the 20th Century, in the theatre that bears his name. They have never been performed together in a season of this kind. Each play runs for a limited number of performances.
The season will be presented in repertoire by a world-class cast, many of whom were Harold Pinter’s friends and frequent collaborators. The cast includes Keith Allen, Jessica Barden, Bríd Brennan, Ron Cook, Jon Culshaw, Phil Davis, Janie Dee, Danny Dyer, Tom Edden, Paapa Essiedu, Lee Evans, Abbie Finn, Martin Freeman, Michael Gambon, Robert Glenister, Jonathan Glew, Rupert Graves, Tamsin Greig, Isis Hainsworth, John Heffernan, Rufus Hound, Jane Horrocks, Celia Imrie, Gary Kemp, Katherine Kingsley, John Macmillan, Eleanor Matsuura, Emma Naomi, Tracy Ann Oberman, Kate O’Flynn, Jonjo O’Neill, Peter Polycarpou, Abraham Popoola, Antony Sher, John Simm, Hayley Squires, Maggie Steed, David Suchet, Meera Syal, Luke Thallon, Russell Tovey, Dwane Walcott, Al Weaver, Penelope Wilton and Nicholas Woodeson.
Mark Rylance will make two special charity performances of Art, Truth and Politics, Pinter’s Nobel Prize Lecture, in aid of the Stop the War Coalition.
Direction is by Jamie Lloyd, Patrick Marber, Lyndsey Turner, Ed Stambollouian and Lia Williams, with season design by Soutra Gilmour, lighting by Jon Clark, Elliot Griggs and Richard Howell, and sound and music by George Dennis and Ben & Max Ringham.
Pinter 10
Pinter at the Pinter is part of the Pinter 10 partnership with the BFI, The Harold Pinter Estate and Faber & Faber, which is marking the 10th anniversary of Pinter’s death with a series of events celebrating the life of the most important British playwright of the 20th Century.
BFI Southbank commemorated the anniversary with a season of Pinter’s film and television productions; Pinter on Screen: Power, Sex & Politics.
About Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, London in 1930. He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pinter was lauded throughout his life as one of the greatest living playwrights, who had a revolutionary impact on how theatre was written and performed, and who it represented on stage. An establishment agitator who challenged injustice, he became as famous for his political interventions as for his writing later in his life.
His genius was recognised within his lifetime as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, the European Theatre Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature, in addition to 18 other honorary degrees.
After working as an actor under the stage name David Baron, Pinter went on to be a theatrical playwright, director, screenwriter and actor.
He wrote his first play The Room in 1957 and from there 29 plays, including The Birthday Party, The Hothouse, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man’s Land, and Betrayal. Sketches include The Black and White, Request Stop, That’s your Trouble, Night, and Precisely.
Pinter directed 27 theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray and scores of his own plays including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room, at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000.
In film he wrote 21 screenplays including The Pumpkin Eater, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sleuth.
He continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. He last acted two years before his death in 2006, when he appeared in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson.
SCHEDULE
Wednesday 10th October 2018
Happy Birthday, Harold
Directed by Jamie Lloyd
Cast includes: Jade Anouka, Zawe Ashton, Simon Russell Beale, Jon Culshaw, Tom Edden, Paapa Essiedu, Lee Evans, Gawn Grainger, Tamsin Greig, Sheila Hancock, Kit Harington, John Heffernan, Tom Hiddleston, Gary Kemp, Felicity Kendal, John Macmillan, Patrick Marber, Forbes Masson, Kate O’Flynn, Jonjo O’Neill, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Simm, Jon Snow, Hayley Squires, Maggie Steed, David Suchet, Frances de la Tour, Russell Tovey, Indira Varma, Samuel West and Lia Williams.
Ticket prices
£65, £45, £35, £25
Premium price tickets are available
