Simon Russell Beale & John Simm to star in The Hothouse

It has been announced that The Hothouse, Harold Pinter’s macabre tragicomedy will return to London’s West End in a new production this May. The Hothouse follows a sold out run of Macbeth in a thrilling season of work for Trafalgar Transformed, a joint initiative between director Jamie Lloyd and Howard Panter. The Hothouse opens on 9th May (previews from 4th May) and runs until 3rd August 2013. 

Simon Russell Beale and John Simm will star in the production as Rotte and Gibbs. Simon's theatre credits include Privates on Parade, National Theatre’s Timon of Athens and Collaborators while John's theatre credits include Elling, Sheffield Theatres’ Hamlet and Betrayal. Further casting will be announced shortly.

Jamie 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."

It’s Christmas Day in a nameless state-run mental institution where the inmates are subjected to a tirade of mindless cruelty. A maniacal and self-obsessed leader breeds a contagion of hierarchical savagery amongst his staff, who thrive on a noxious diet of delusion and deceit. The day got off to a lousy start! A death and a birth. Absolutely bloody scandalous! Is it too much to ask – to keep the place clean?

Under a veil of devilish wit and subversive humour, Pinter’s biting political commentary on the perils of unchecked power is as vital and pertinent today as when it was written in the 50’s.

Harold Pinter wrote twenty-nine plays including The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, twenty-one screenplays including The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sleuth, and directed twenty-seven theatre productions, including James Joyce's Exiles, David Mamet's Oleanna, seven plays by Simon Gray and many of his own plays including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room, at The Almeida Theatre in the spring of 2000. In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other awards include the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, 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. He received honorary degrees from eighteen universities.

Please visit www.thehothousewestend.com for further information and to book tickets.

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