Opening the Pinter At The Pinter season is a dynamic collection of Harold Pinter’s most potent and dangerous political plays, Pinter One.
The trio of opening plays are directed Jamie Lloyd. The evening begins with the incendiary One For The Road – Pinter at his most terrifying. A ruthless government official interrogates a dissident and his family, but is the torturer more tortured than his victims?
The New World Order explores how the abuse of power is legitimised in the name of freedom and democracy, as two brutal interrogators prepare to inflict their terrible punishment on a blind-folded insurgent.
Pinter subsequently investigates the suppression of ideas and the supposed threat of non-conformity in Mountain Language: a group of captives attempt to find a voice when their shared language is banned by the state.
The evening culminates with Ashes To Ashes, a richly atmospheric and compelling play in which the dark nightmare of human atrocity infiltrates a couple’s living room, directed by award-winning actress and long-time Pinter collaborator, Lia Williams.
The evening will also see the world premiere production of Pinter’s newly-discovered satirical sketch, The Pres And An Officer, an anarchic attack on the Presidency.
The cast of Pinter One will include theatre legend Sir Anthony Sher, making his Pinter debut alongside recent Olivier Award nominee Kate O’Flynn (The Glass Menagerie). The evening also stars the acclaimed Jonjo O’Neill, as well as Paapa Essiedu, who won massive acclaim for his portrayal of Hamlet at the RSC and was recently named a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, and Maggie Steed (Channel 4’s Chewing Gum), who returns to The Jamie Lloyd Company having played Queen Margaret opposite Martin Freeman in Richard III at Trafalgar Studios.
Pinter At The Pinter is a unique event featuring all twenty short plays written by the greatest British playwright of the 20th Century. They have never been performed together in a season of this kind. The twenty plays are being presented in repertoire by a company of world-class creatives, many of whom were Harold Pinter’s friends and collaborators.
Find out more about Harold Pinter’s life and career here.