Mad Dogs star John Simm will return to the London stage later this year when he teams up with Simon Russell Beale for Harold Pinter’s The Hothouse.
The tale of unchecked power will be the second in director Jamie Lloyd’s Trafalgar Transformed season at the Trafalgar Studio 1, following the successful current production of Macbeth, from 4 May.
Pinter’s play, set in a mental institution where a self-obsessed leader breeds a contagion of hierarchical savagery amongst his staff, will mark screen star Simm’s first return to London’s West End since 2009’s Speaking In Tongues, and his first return to the Trafalgar Studios since his Olivier Award-nominated performance in 2007’s Elling. The actor, whose previous stage credits also include Hamlet and Betrayal in Sheffield, is best known for his screen work, which includes 24 Hour Party People, Wonderland, Doctor Who, Life On Mars and upcoming BBC drama The Village.
Multi Olivier Award winner Russell Beale, by contrast, has only just finished in the Michael Grandage Company production of Privates On Parade and is a regular in Theatreland where his most recent credits have included Collaborators, Timon Of Athens and London Assurance for the National Theatre and Deathtrap at the Noël Coward theatre.
Speaking about the project Lloyd said: “It is a dream come true to be working with Simon Russell Beale and John Simm on this funny, peculiar and frightening play as a part of Trafalgar Transformed. The Hothouse is the third Pinter project I have worked on (following The Caretaker and The Lover & The Collection) and I am thrilled to be introducing Harold’s work to a young, diverse audience via our £15 Mondays ticket scheme.”
The ticket scheme, a key facet of the season created as a joint initiative between Lloyd and Ambassador Theatre Group’s Howard Panter, makes all tickets for every Monday available for just £15, with half distributed through an outreach scheme targeted at schools and first time theatregoers, and half released for public sale on the first day of the month for the month ahead.