Film actor Rupert Friend will make his West End stage debut alongside Laurence Olivier Award-winning actress Tamsin Greig in Douglas Carter Beane’s The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick theatre on 20 January.
Beane’s play, which premiered on Broadway in 2006, is a satire on Hollywood morals which centres on Mitchell (Friend), a closeted movie star and heartthrob, whose acerbic agent (Greig) finds a woman for him to marry in order to keep his sexuality under wraps and his career on course.
British actor Friend has so far made his mark on the film world with appearances in The Young Victoria, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, Cheri and Pride And Prejudice.
Until a few years ago Greig was also known predominantly for her screen work, which included quirky comedy series Green Wing, Black Books and Love Soup. However, since returning to the stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Much Ado About Nothing, which transferred to London and earned her the 2007 Best Actress Laurence Olivier Award, Greig has capitalised on her stage success with roles in God Of Carnage at the Gielgud theatre and Gethsemane at the National Theatre.
Playwright Beane is the author of As Bees In Honey Drown and the hit Broadway musical Xanadu, for which he received a Tony Award nomination.
The Little Dog Laughed will be directed by Jamie Lloyd, whose work includes The Caretaker at the Tricycle theatre, The Lover & The Collection at the Comedy theatre and the award-winning Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse and West End.
The comedy comes to the Garrick theatre following a short run of The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso, which plays from 11 September to 3 October, and an autumn season for Italian quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti, whose show Change runs runs from 19 October to 3 January.
CB