La Bete Tickets - Harold Pinter Theatre

La Bete

Three big names are set to take to the Comedy Theatre in a new staging of David Hirson’s La Bête this year, making this a highly anticipated production for a venue that regularly features well known stars in lead roles.

David Hyde Pierce is amongst those set to appear in the show, marking his West End debut following success on Broadway, in television and as a movie voice actor.

Meanwhile, La Bête will be the first production for Mark Rylance following his phenomenal performance in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, which appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in 2009 and the Apollo Theatre in 2010.

Finally, portraying a fickle princess is Joanna Lumley, who appears in the West End following her high profile battle to allow veteran Gurkhas the right to remain in the UK. The “Absolutely Fabulous” star has also appeared in productions like “The New Avengers”, the Vaudeville Theatre’s “Blithe Spirit”, the King’s Head’s “Noel and Gertie”, plus the Lyric Hammersmith’s “The Letter”.

La Bête is the story of performance artists entertaining a fickle Princess (Lumley) and the ways in which her decisions create a squaring off that will go down in literary history. One of the performers is Elomire (Hyde Pierce), a classical dramatist whose theatre troupe is respected and whose heart is attached to the stage. The other is Valere (Rylance), a street clown whose heart belongs only to himself. The Princess’s fickle ways manifest themselves when she decides she is no longer amused by Elomire and his companions, forcing him and Valere to go head to head and battle for their survival.

The casting of David Hyde Pierce should be enough to attract significant audiences to the Comedy Theatre with the actor well known for appearing in the likes of “Frasier”, “Nixon” and the comic book movie “Hellboy”. His long career has been hugely successful and before the West End he has already paved his way in Broadway, earning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical in 2007 for “Curtains”.

The show is set to feature the designs of Mark Thompson, the sounds design of Simon Baker and the lighting of Hugh Vanstone.

La Bête makes its appearance at the Comedy Theatre from Wednesday 7th July 2010 (previews from Saturday 26th June 2010) until Saturday 28th August 2010.