The London premieres of David Hare’s The Vertical Hour and Fiona Evans’s Scarborough have proved so popular with ticket-buying theatregoers that extra dates have been added to the runs of both. The Vertical Hour, which plays Downstairs, has added matinees on Thursdays, while Scarborough, playing Upstairs, has been extended by one week to 15 March.
The Vertical Hour, which premiered on Broadway in November 2006, opened at the Royal Court earlier this week. Starring Indira Varma, Anton Lesser and Tom Riley, Hare’s play follows the meeting of an American former war reporter, who is sure of her world views, with her boyfriend’s equally opinionated father.
Scarborough, one of the successes of the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, opens at the Royal Court on 11 February. The show tells of a couple sharing an illicit weekend, though, controversially, one is only 15 years old and the other is their teacher. In Edinburgh, the show played with a male student and female teacher, but for the London run a second half has been created in which the roles are reversed. Daniel Mays (The Winterling, Motortown) returns to the Royal Court for this production, starring alongside Holly Atkins, Jack O’Connell and Rebecca Ryan.
MA