John Malkovich to play Fritzl-style psychopath in West End
Story by Jack Foley
ACCLAIMED Hollywood actor John Malkovich is to play a Josef Fritzl-style Austrian psychopath on the London stage next year, it has been announced.
The 56-year-old star of movies such as Dangerous Liaisons and Burn After Reading (pictured), will star in The Infernal Comedy, about real-life serial killer Jack Unterweger, at The Barbican as part of its 2010/2011 season.
Announcing the season, and picking out the play as one of its more controversial highlights, Graham Sheffield, artistic director of The Barbican, admitted that the play had curious similarities to Frizl’s story, the Austrian man who locked his daughter in a basement prison for 24 years.
The production will be a one-man play featuring Malkovich that looks into the mind of such a psychopath. It’s sure to provoke controversy, which Mr Sheffield insisted the Barbican was “not afraid” to tackle.
Describing the play as “beautiful” in spite of its “ostensibly shocking” subject matter, Mr Sheffield added: “Part of the reason I picked it was the issue of how people like that, monsters like that, can get away with crimes like that.
“The reason we put on something like that is it has a pretty shocking relevance to some of things going on in society.”
The Infernal Comedy will make its Barbican debut in 2011.
Further highlights from the season include Future Beauty, a “ground-breaking” show of innovative Japanese fashion, a new version of Gyorgy Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, and a performance by Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Venezuelan conductor.
In emerging the 2010/11 season, Barbican bosses were also delighted to announce that ticket sales had reached record levels in 2009.