No Man's Land - David Walliams makes W/E debut
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
DAVID Walliams will make his West End debut alongside Michael Gambon in a new production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, which opens at the Duke of York’s Theatre on October 7, 2008 (previews from September 27).
In this 1975 tragicomic classic, two aging writers, Hirst (Gambon) and Spooner, meet on Hampstead Heath before returning home for a late-night session of drinking, witty banter and sinister power games, watched over by Hirst’s henchmen, Briggs and Foster (Walliams).
Rupert Goold will direct a cast that also includes David Bradley (Spooner) and Nick Dunning (Briggs).
Gambon has previously appeared in Pinter’s Betrayal, Mountain Language and The Caretaker and, in 2005, played Lambert in a staged reading of Celebration at the Albery Theatre as part of the Gate Theatre, Dublin’s celebration of Pinter’s 75th birthday – a role he reprised two years later in John Crowley’s television film for Channel 4.
His most recent theatre credits include Cressida (for the Almeida at the Albery Theatre), A Number (Royal Court Theatre), Endgame (Albery Theatre) and Eh Joe (Duke of York’s Theatre).
On screen he has appeared in The Singing Detective, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Longitude, Mary Reilly, Sleepy Hollow, Gosford Park, Sylvia, Angels in America, Layer Cake, The Life Aquatic, The Good Shepherd, Amazing Grace, and four Harry Potter films (as Professor Albus Dumbledore).
In 1992, Gambon was awarded a CBE and in 1998 he received a Knighthood for his contribution to the arts.
Walliams rose to fame with Matt Lucas in the hugely popular BBC series Little Britain. His other television credits include Waking the Dead, Randall and Hopkirk Deceased, George Eliot: A Scandalous Life and, most recently, Rather You Than Me (as Frankie Howard) and Stephen Poliakoff’s Capturing Mary (as Greville White), both for BBC.
He has also appeared on the big screen in the forthcoming Prince Caspian, as well as Run Fat Boy Run, A Cock and Bull Story, Stardust and Plunkett and Maclean.
Bradley‘s extensive theatre credits include The Caretaker (Sheffield Theatres and the Tricycle Theatre); The Homecoming, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, The Night Season, The Mysteries and King Lear (National Theatre); Phedre and Britannicus (Almeida Theatre); the title role in Titus Andronicus (Royal Shakespeare Company); Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse) and, most recently, Richard Crane’s one man show, The Quiz (Trafalgar Studios).
On screen, he has appeared in all the Harry Potter films (as Argus Filch), Hot Fuzz, Nicholas Nickleby and Gabriel and Me (film); and True Dare Kiss, Ideal, Blackpool, Vanity Fair, Reckless, Our Mutual Friend and Our Friends in the North (TV).
Dunning‘s theatre credits include Don Carlos, Betrayal, The Home Place, The Homecoming, Our Country’s Good and The Taming of the Shrew. His screen credits include The Tudors, Waking the Dead, Midsomer Murders, Vanity Fair and The Firm; 50 Dead Men Walking, Whistleblower, Alexander The Great, The Return, In America and Dark Angel (film).
Rupert Goold, artistic director of Headlong Theatre Company, won the Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Director for his Chichester Festival production of Macbeth. And later this year, he will direct Cameron Mackintosh’s revival of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
No Man’s Land will be seen at Dublin’s Gate Theatre (August 21 to September 27) prior to the West End. The production is designed by Giles Cadle, with lighting by Neil Austin and sound and music by Adam Cork.
Prior to No Man’s Land, Under the Blue Sky runs from July 15 to September 20, 2008 at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
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