The Ambassador Theatre Group announced today that it is to rename London’s Comedy Theatre as The Harold Pinter Theatre after the late Nobel Prize-winning British playwright.
The former Comedy Theatre seems an appropriate venue to be renamed the Harold Pinter Theatre after seven of the late playwright’s plays were performed there in the past two decades, including notable productions of The Lover And The Collection and Betrayal in recent years.
ATG’s Joint Chief Executive and Creative Director, Howard Panter, said: “The work of Pinter has become an integral part of the history of the Comedy Theatre. The re-naming of one of our most successful West End theatres is a fitting tribute to a man who made such a mark on British theatre, who, over his 50-year career, became recognised as one of the most influential modern British dramatists.”
Harold Pinter, widely recognised as one of the UK’s greatest playwrights, died on Christmas Eve 2008. He wrote a total of 32 plays and a number of screenplays. As an actor and director, Pinter also directed four plays at the Comedy.
Ariel Dorfman, the author of the latest show at the theatre, Death And The Maiden, described Harold Pinter as “my mentor for most of my writing life”.
Pinter’s widow, Lady Antonia Fraser, added: “Harold would have been so pleased by this honour and I am very moved at the news.”
Death And The Maiden, starring Thandie Newton, opens at the newly renamed Harold Pinter Theatre on 24 October and runs until 21 January 2012.