Eileen Atkins Joins Henry Goodman for West End-Bound Birthday Party
Atkins has received Best Actress Tony nominations for her work in The Killing of Sister George, Vivat! Vivat! Regina!, Indiscretions and The Retreat from Moscow. Her other Broadway credits include The Promise and The Night of the Tribades. Her off-Broadway credits include A Room of One's Own Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards, Vita & Virginia a two-person play she wrote about writers Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf and the Unexpected Man. Considered to be one of England's best stage actresses, Atkins won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Killing of Sister George and an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Peter Hall's production of The Winter's Tale. She also has a busy film career and was recently seen on the big screen in Vanity Fair.
The Birthday Party premiered in 1958 at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. It centers on hapless musician Stanley Webber, who is seeking solitude at an isolated, dingy seaside boarding house that he shares with the doting Meg Atkins and the agreeable Petey. But his peace is interrupted with the arrival of two strangers, Goldberg Goodman and McCann, who are clearly there to get him.
The production will bow at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre March 11 through March 26 and then head to Bath and Malvern before the West End.