With his career springboard from the success of his role as the Doctor, Matt Smith has got a pretty big challenge ahead to find a new direction following his upcoming game ending reanimation and his first effort will be a production of American Psycho at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, London. It’s a fairly significant change of direction, but it’s one that sees him return to his routes on stage as he takes on Bret Easton Ellis’ modern man monster, Patrick Bateman.
Opening on Tuesday the 4th December 2013, the production is set to run until Saturday the 25th January 2014. With the feeder role the theatre has for West End Productions, if the performances are well received it could get a transfer to a longer central London run.
Evening performances open at 7:30pm and run from Monday to Saturday. There will also be 2:30pm Wednesdays matinee performances on the 18th December 2013 and the 8th, 5th and 22nd January 2014, as well as Saturday martinees at the same time running every week from the 14th December. Plus there will be a few random weekday matinees (2:30pm) on Monday 23rd December, Friday 27th December, Thursday 2nd January and Friday 3rd January, and a Sunday 5pm performance on the 29th December 2013.
Tickets cost between £10 and £45, but the down side is that they’re currently all sold out for every performance in the run. However, the Almeida Theatre has announced that they will be releasing more tickets for American Psycho on Thursday the 5th December 2013, following their opening show on the 4th.
The play is a direct adaptation of Bret Ellis Easton’s seminal novel-noir, in which Patrick (Smith) explores the darker side of his Wall Street yuppy, clean cut college grad, general cereal murderer persona. However, apart from the crazy twisting chainsaw turns of the storyline, the big shake up is that the adaptation is a musical (duh duh duuuuhhhhh).
We’re not sure that the concept will be an instant hit with the novel’s readership, but there’s definitely something intriguing about the prospect of a soon-to-be former Doctor, whose replacement used to be the maniac from The Thick of It, turning cold blooded killer while singing about his lust for severed flesh, super sharp suits, the best restaurants in town and good exfoliation.
From the write-up on the Ameida Theatre website, there should still be a sizable stab of the critique of capitalism that comes through so strongly from the novel in the production. We just hope the fine edge of the blade isn’t too nicked by the musical infusion.
Matt Smith will be finishing his run as Doctor Who during the Christmas special, but not before he manages to be the Dr incumbent to preside over the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special.
The production is set to be followed by a new adaptation of 1984, adding even more to the cool credentials of the theatre. It opens on the 8th February 2014 and runs through until the 29th March 2014.
