The Cocktail Party - Print Room at The Coronet
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FULL casting has been announced for the first major London revival of The Cocktail Party in over 25 years, which will be staged in the main auditorium at the iconic Coronet, and marks a transitional moment in the building’s redevelopment as the larger space becomes home to the Print Room’s eclectic programme.
Directed by Abbey Wright (The Mentalists, Wyndham’s Theatre, The Father, Trafalgar Studios), this new Print Room production of TS Eliot’s masterpiece plays from September 14 to October 10, 2015.
The cast includes Helen Bradbury (as Lavinia Chamberlayne), Richard Dempsey (Edward Chamberlayne), Hilton McRae (Unidentified Guest/Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly), Chloe Pirrie (Celia Coplestone), Christopher Ravenscroft (Alex), John Wark (Peter Quilpe) and Marcia Warren (Julia).
The Cocktail Party was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949, starring Alec Guinness. It went on to enjoy commercial success in London and on Broadway, where it received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play.
Often considered one of Eliot’s best works, The Cocktail Party is a radical, absurdist drama about the human mind and the life of the spirit, and offers a piercing and perceptive look at marriage and relationships.
Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne have organised a cocktail party for their friends. The only problem is, four days before the party, Lavinia leaves Edward. Resolved to go ahead with party preparations, Edward must navigate his way through the evening without answering questions on Lavinia’s disappearance. That is, until Lavinia unexpectedly turns up, with a mysterious guest in tow. What ensues is an examination of the Chamberlaynes’ relationship, through the lens of mysticism and emotional deconstruction.
The Cocktail Party was TS Eliot’s most popular play during his lifetime. His preoccupation with time, the human condition, and existential meaning can be traced through his best known poems The Waste Land, Four Quartets and The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, through to his verse dramas Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion and The Cocktail Party.
The Cocktail Party is designed by Richard Kent, with lighting by David Plater and sound and musical composition by Gary Yershon.
As a wider celebration of TS Eliot’s work during the run, there will be a weekly series of pre-show Platform Events with well-known contemporary poets David Harsent (September 14), Glyn Maxwell (September 22) and Lavinia Greenlaw (September 28), and Eliot’s biographer, Lyndall Gordon (October 5). For an extra shot of authenticity, a pop-up 1950’s cocktail bar will be created in the stalls of the theatre, complete with piano, vintage aesthetic and gin cocktails.
Tickets: £25, £17 concessions, £10 Saturdays at 3pm – available at the box office on 020 3642 6606 or online at www.the-print-room.org/.
Times: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm; Saturday matinees at 3pm.
Following The Cocktail Party, from October 15 to November 7, 2015 in the main auditorium, the internationally-renowned Handspring Puppet Company presents their highly acclaimed production of Ubu and the Truth Commission written by Jane Taylor, and directed by artist and film-maker William Kentridge.