The West End revival of The Birthday Party, headlined by Eileen Atkins and Henry Goodman, will end its run at the Duchess Theatre on June 25.
The Birthday Party premiered in 1958 at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. It centers on hapless musician Stanley Webber Paul Ritter, who is seeking solitude at an isolated, dingy seaside boarding house that he shares with the doting Meg Atkins and the agreeable Petey Geoffrey Hutchings. But his peace is interrupted with the arrival of two strangers, Goldberg Goodman and McCann Finbar Lynch, who are clearly there to get him.
This production of the Harold Pinter play went to Birmingham Repertory Theatre March 11 through March 26 and then headed to Bath and Malvern before officially opening at the Duchess on April 25. In his review of the production, Variety's Matt Wolf wrote: "Before long, Goodman has you welcoming Goldberg's every verbal riff while fearing the violence that lies in wait. As long as he's in charge, Lindsay Posner's West End revival of Party is cause for celebration. And when Goodman isn't, well, a seminal play is still there, its power to disturb intermittently intact."
