Photo Flash: PRICK UP YOUR EARS Opens at the Comedy Theatre 9/17

Gwen Taylor joins Matt Lucas and Chris New in Daniel Kramer's production of PRICK UP YOUR EARS, a new play by Simon Bent. Inspired exclusively by the John Lahr biography and the diaries of Joe Orton, PRICK UP YOUR EARS examines the private lives of these two extraordinary men. Set designs are by Peter McKintosh with lighting by Peter Mumford and sound by Gareth Owen. With the full support of the Orton Estate, including Leonie Orton, Joe Orton's younger sister, PRICK UP YOUR EARS is produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions and Lee Menzies.

PRICK UP YOUR EARS will run at the Comedy Theatre from 17 September until 6 December (including Sunday performances at 4pm) with press night on 30 September. Prior to the West End opening, PRICK UP YOUR EARS played engagements at Richmond Theatre Quays Theatre, The Lowry, Salford and the Theatre Royal Brighton.

1962. Kenneth Halliwell (Matt Lucas) and Joe Orton (Chris New) - RADA graduates, aspiring playwrights, and sometime lovers - plot their rightful place at the centre of London's literary scene whilst engaged in a secret crusade to "improve" the local library books, all in the worst possible taste of course, and acting out their own versions of popular radio dramas... with an extra dash of innuendo. But after a short interlude at Her Majesty's pleasure, Joe is about to become the greatest, and most notorious comic playwright since Oscar Wilde, whilst Ken stays indoors re-decorating, reduced to sharing Joe's success with their neighbour, Mrs Corden (Gwen Taylor) over tea and a slice of battenburg. PRICK UP YOUR EARS, a darkly funny and moving play, imagines what really happened when, after years of creative collaboration, the door slammed shut and Kenneth was home alone. It tells the sensational story behind the domestic life of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell, holed up in a tiny flat in Islington, trading well-trodden insults and hilarious put-downs like any old married couple.

Performances will run Tuesday - Saturday 7:30 pm, Saturday matinees 2:30 pm, Sundays 4 pm with weekday matinees at 2.30 pm on 14 & 28 October and 11 & 25 November.  Tickets are priced at £17.50 - £49.50, plus concessions. Tickets for previews will be £10 off top three prices. Tickets can be ordered at the Box Office by calling 0870 0606637.  For more information, please visit   www.prickupyourearstheplay.com

Photo Credit: Catherine Ashmore

Gwen Taylor and Matt Lucas

Matt Lucas

Chris New

Chris New, Gwen Taylor, and Matt Lucas

Matt Lucas, Gwen Taylor, and Chris New