Recent Doctor Who star Pearl Mackie will join the previously announced Toby Jones, Stephen Mangan and Zoë Wanamaker in the cast of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party.
In Mackie’s first role after playing ‘Bill Potts’, companion to Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who in the latest series, she will star in the play’s exciting 60th anniversary production this winter as ‘Lulu’.
Mackie’s final appearance in Doctor Who will be in this year’s Christmas Special, will will air on 25 December. Pearl’s casting was announced in the original short film Friend From The Future, written by Steven Moffat. Also starring Matt Lucas and Michelle Gomez, the tenth series of the globally popular show premiered in April 2017 to critical acclaim.
Of the announcement, Mackie said: “I’m delighted to be back in the West End working with such a prolific director like Ian Rickson – and an incredible cast – on this rich, dark and enthralling play. I love how Pinter creates character and I feel very lucky to work on one of his best-known plays.”
From 2015-6, Pearl appeared in the National Theatre’s Olivier and Tony award-winning The Curious Incident Of The Dog in the Night-Time. In 2013, Pearl appeared alongside Martin Freeman, Michael Socha and Maxine Peake in the comedy film Svengali, directed by John Hardwick.
The Birthday Party centres on the fallout of the arrival of enigmatic strangers Goldberg (Mangan) and McCann at the sleepy seaside boarding house of Meg (Zoë Wanamaker). Disrupting the humdrum lives of the inhabitants (including lodger Stanley Webber, played by Jones) and their friend Lulu (Mackie), mundanity soon becomes menace as a seemingly innocent birthday party becomes a nightmare.
The Birthday Party will play at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 9 January to 14 April 2018.
Book your tickets for The Birthday Party today.