Bill Bailey To Star in Harold Pinter Sketches At London's Theatre Royal Haymarket
Four Week Limited Run

Comic actor and comedian BILL BAILEY ('Never Mind The Buzzcocks', 'Black Books') is to appear alongside comedy royalty SALLY PHILLIPS ('Green Wing', 'Bridget Jones' Diary', 'Jam 'n' Jerusalem'), KEVIN ELDON ('Big Train') and GERALDINE MCNULTY ('My Hero') in a remarkable evening of rarely seen HAROLD PINTER Sketches during a four week, limited run of performances at London's THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET. In a mark of respect and a celebration of PINTER who will celebrate his 76th birthday this year, SEAN FOLEY ('The Right Size', 'The Play What I Wrote') will direct the four strong cast in this presentation of the thirteen sketches, woven together under the banner 'PINTER'S PEOPLE', a title given to the company by the playwright for this unique production.

Many regard HAROLD PINTER as Britain's greatest living playwright. He is the undisputed master of absurdist drama and his plays are noted for their use of silence, understatement, and cryptic small talk. Equally recognizable are the 'Pinteresque' themes - nameless menace, erotic fantasy, obsession and jealousy, family hatred and mental disturbance.

The thirteen sketches FOLEY has chosen to present date back to Pinter's earliest days as a playwright in the 1950s.

In 'NIGHT' in which GERALDINE MCNULTY and BILL BAILEY play a man and woman living together in what they call love. He recalls that the first time he held her was on a bridge, where he cupped her breasts in his hands. Her recollection is entirely different; another location where he took her hand and gently stroked it. The difference of memory between the lovers creates an almost tragic divide.

In 'TESS', SALLY PHILLIPS plays an excitable young girl at a party who recalls growing up with Mummy and Daddy in the country…and then, without any apparent change of key, we watch her sink into a surreal madness. In 'THE NEW WORLD ORDER' a sketch far more chilling and compelling than any Tarrantino scene, BAILEY and ELDON play Des and Lionel, two men who take us on a highly disturbing yet hysterical journey whilst they discuss what they are going to do to the blindfold man sitting in the chair beside them.

THE PINTER SKETCHES prove why PINTER has been proclaimed the last modernist, the last Classicist and at times the last Romantic, the fact that he has seen and is excited by this interpretation of his work makes this production all the more special. Produced by MICK PERRIN, PINTER'S PEOPLE performed by BAILEY, ELDON, MCNULTY and PHILLIPS under the creative guidance of award-winning FOLEY means that the PINTER'S PEOPLE promises to be one of 2007's most coveted tickets.

When PINTER'S PEOPLE opens at The THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET on Feb1st (previews from 30th Jan) for four weeks only. It will be one of the last chances to see PINTER as the playwright himself intended. It will also be a unique opportunity to see four of our most talented and respected comic actors together.