News

Matt Berry, Simon Bird and more to star in The Philanthropist

The newest production of Christopher Hampton’s celebrated The Philanthropist is set to open at London’s Trafalgar Studios.

Simon Callow directs the latest production of The Philanthropist, featuring Matt Berry, Simon Bird, Lily Cole, Charlotte Ritchie and Tom Rosenthal.

It sees the cast of young comedians playing at the ages Hampton originally intended, premiering at the Royal Court back in 1970. Following a group of young academics, the action surrounds Philip (Simon Bird) as he anguishes over sex and marriage while a recent assassination of the Prime Minister triggers the murder of the country’s top writers.

Hosting a dinner party for his fiancée Celia (Charlotte Ritchie), best friend Donald (Tom Rosenthal), Araminta (Lily Cole) and wealthy novelist Braham (Matt Berry), events see them flung out of their isolated existence forcing them to deal with the consequences.

“When Christopher Hampton’s The Philanthropist first burst onto the world, he was 23; the play was really about his contemporaries, but neither then, nor ever since, has it been cast at the right age,” says director Callow. “I’m very excited, not only to be doing the play, which I think one of the funniest, sharpest plays in the English language, but to be doing it with a group of brilliantly witty and original young actors who will reveal the play as it’s never been seen before.”

The show brings together the BAFTA award winning Matt Berry, fellow winner and The Inbetweeners star Simon Bird, and St Trinian’s, Ab Fab: The Movie, and Snow White and The Huntsman star Lily Cole. Friday Night Dinner, Plebs and Broadchurch actor Tom Rosenthal, and Charlotte Ritchie (Call The Midwife) also star.

The strictly limited season runs from 3 April 2017 to 22 July 2017 at London’s Trafalgar Studios. Check back for more details very soon.