Every day is opening night.

PREMIERE AMERICAN PRODUCTION FEATURES
HUGH DANCY, ADAM JAMES,
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH AND BEN WHISHAW
OPENS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010

New York, NY – MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) presents an all new production of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Pride, directed by Joe Mantello (Glengarry Glen Ross, Take Me Out), in its American premiere. The production features actors Hugh Dancy (Adam, Journey’s End), Adam James (Last Chance Harvey),Andrea Riseborough (Happy Go Lucky) and Ben Whishaw (Bright Star, Brideshead Revisited). Ms. Riseborough and Mr. Whishaw are making their New York stage debuts. Performances began at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on January 27 and continue through March 20, 2010. Opening night is set for Tuesday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Author Alexi Kaye Campbell received the Evening Standard “Charles Wintour” Award nomination for Most Promising Playwright. This is yet another honor for Campbell and his blazing London debut with The Pride, for which he won The Whiting Award, a national U.K. playwriting prize, the Critics Circle’s Most Promising Playwright Award and a 2009 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement.

In The Pride, Oliver (Whishaw), Philip (Dancy) and Sylvia (Riseborough) are caught in a kind of erotic time warp. Their complex love triangle, replete with conflicting loyalties and passions, jumps from 1958 to the present and back in a maelstrom of fantasy, repression and rebellion in this innovative new drama. After taking London by storm last season in an Olivier Award-winning production at the Royal Court, The Pride now makes its American premiere at MCC Theater.

Scenic Design is by David Zinn (Xanadu), Costume Design is by Mattie Ullrich (Naked Angels’ Fault Lines), Lighting Design is by Paul Gallo (recent Broadway revival of Pal Joey) and Sound Design is by Jill DuBoff (After Miss Julie).

Performances are Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 & 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 & 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org or by contacting Ticket Central directly at www.ticketcentral.com or calling 212-279-4200.

Later in the season, MCC Theater’s production of Beth Henley’s Family Week, directed by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs), will star Quincy Tyler Bernstein, Kathleen Chalfant, Rosemarie Dewitt and Same Gayle.

Hugh Dancy, Andrea Riseborough and Ben Whishaw are appearing with the permission of Actors’ Equity Association. MCC Theater gratefully acknowledges Actors’ Equity Association for its assistance on this production.

MCC Theater is one of New York City's leading Off Broadway theater companies, committed to presenting New York and world premieres each season. When MCC Theater was founded in 1986, its mission was simple: to bring new theatrical voices to theater-going audiences. MCC Theater continues to accomplish this yearly through presentation of its mainstage works; its Literary Program, which actively seeks and develops new and emerging writers and its Education & Outreach Program, allowing more than 1,200 students yearly to experience theater, increase literacy and discover their own voices in the arts. Notable MCC Theater highlights include: the 2008 Tony Award-nominated reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute, last season’s Fifty Words, the 2004 Tony-winning production of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen; Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig;Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living; Marsha Norman’s Trudy Blue; Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone and Alan Bowne’s Beirut. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards.

Praise for The Pride:

“A truly remarkable debut!
Campbell's mature ability to grip audiences with subtly truthful disclosure is matched by his skill at construction. ‘The Pride’ marks the arrival of a serious new voice in theater and the debut of the year.”
Variety

“Alexi Kaye Campbell’s ‘The Pride’ marks the debut of a fledgling writer whose voice on this evidence is already astonishingly fully formed.”
Herald Tribune

“This is a searching, moving, thoroughly grown-up play, and a remarkable debut from a writer from whom I am impatient to hear more.”
Daily Telegraph

“An illuminating, moving night of theatre.”
Time Out London

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