Tisková zpráva Pygmalion

PYGMALION by BERNARD SHAW

With Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon

Chichester Festival Theatre’s hit production of George Bernard Shaw’s best-known play comes to The Garrick Theatre from mid-May with Rupert Everett reprising the role of Professor Higgins, joined by EastEnders star and Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon making her West End debut as Eliza Dolittle.

In Pygmalion, the egocentric Professor of Phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend, the amiable Colonel Pickering (played by Peter Eyre, also reprising his role from Chichester), that he can transform the manners and speech of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and pass her off as a lady in society.

Bernard Shaw’s ever-entertaining dramatic tour de force is a provocative assault on the sexual politics, educational limitations and class structure of his day. But peppered with his trademark wit and classic style, it is also beguilingly funny. Philip Prowse designs and directs.

Rupert Everett is perhaps best known for his film work where his credits include headmistress Camilla Fritton in the recent St Trinian’s remakes, The Next Best Thing, An Ideal Husband, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Dance With A Stranger and Another Country. He also features in the comedy Wild Target, directed by Jonathan Lynn, due to be released this summer. His stage work includes the original production of Another Country and Blithe Spirit on Broadway.

Kara Tointon is best known for her spectacular success in Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 which she won dancing with her partner Artem Chigvintsev. She played Dawn Swann for 4 years in EastEnders and also recently made the well-received BBC3 documentary Kara Tointon: Don't Call Me Stupid which examined the effect dyslexia can have on people’s lives. Kara was also recently one of nine brave celebrities to take part in the gruelling BT Red Nose Desert Trek to raise money for Comic Relief, covered by the BBC and due to be aired on BBC1 on March 17th.

Director and designer Philip Prowse was a Co-Director, and then Artistic Collaborator, of the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow where he directed and designed over 70 plays and worked with, among others, a young Rupert Everett. He has worked throughout the world directing and designing for opera, ballet and drama.