La Bete

Hotly anticipated as this year's must-see production, La Bête is a dazzling, critically acclaimed comedy by American playwright David Hirson.

Starring the extraordinary 2010 Olivier Award-winning actor Mark Rylance (Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing), “the most exciting stage actor of his generation” (Times), the wonderful Tony and Emmy Award-winning David Hyde Pierce (best known as Niles in the smash-hit sitcom Frasier), and one of the country's most loved and popular actresses, the magnificent Joanna Lumley, this new staging is directed by the internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage, Boeing-Boeing, Art, The Norman Conquests).
       
When Princess Conti (Joanna Lumley) invites street clown Valere (Mark Rylance) to inject some bawdy fun and mischief into her staid acting troupe, she anticipates an exciting creative combination.  But the troupe's leader, Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), is an elitist and fervent lover of high-brow theatre who clashes with Valere - a gaudy comic and a fervent lover of .... well, himself.  So begins a gloriously witty and wildly hilarious battle of art and egos.

Written in 1991, La Bête was a huge critical success in London in 1992 and won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

FULL CAST ANNOUNCED AS REHEARSALS BEGIN FOR
DAVID HIRSON’S
L A B Ê T E

Mark Rylance (Valere), David Hyde Pierce (Elomire) and Joanna Lumley (The Princess) are joined by Stephen Ouimette (Bejart), Lisa Joyce (Marquise-Therese Du Parc), Greta Lee (Dorine), Robert Lonsdale (Rene Du Parc), Michael Milligan (De Brie), Liza Sadovy (Catherine De Brie) and Sally Wingert (Madeleine Bejart) as rehearsals begin for Matthew Warchus’ production of David Hirson’s La Bête.