Celebration & The Room extends to the 21 Jan 2006

The Atlantic Theater Company production of Celebration & The Room, a double-bill of Harold Pinter�s most recent and first plays, directed by Neil Pepe, has extended its run through to the 21 Jan 2006.

The double-bill opened at the Atlantic Theater on the 5 Dec 2005, following previews from the 16 Nov, and was originally running through to the 8 Jan 2006.

Harold Pinter�s most recent (Celebration) and first play (The Room) complement each other in this rarely staged double-bill. Celebration opens on a wedding anniversary in an ultra-trendy restaurant, with three successful couples jockeying for the upper hand. In contrast, The Room descends into a nightmare world of insecurity and uncertainty in a shabby one-room London flat. Although separated by more than 40 years, both plays resonate with the human desperation to find safe haven in a threatening world.

Harold Pinter, one of America and Britain�s most celebrated and influential playwright and poets, was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his prolific body of work. Beginning with his breakthrough play The Caretaker in 1959, he was responsible for the creation of a spare language of verbal evasion and menace, both unspoken and vividly expressed. The Swedish Academy cited �Pinter restored theater to its basic elements � an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles.�

The Room will feature Atlantic Company members Kate Blumberg, Mary Beth Peil, David Pittu and guest artists Earle Hyman, Peter Maloney and Thomas Jay Ryan.

Celebration will feature Atlantic Company members Kate Blumberg, David Pittu and guest artists Betsy Aidem, Patrick Breen, Brennan Brown, Phillip Goodwin, Carolyn McCormick, Thomas Jay Ryan and Christa Scott-Reed.

Celebration & The Room has set design by Walt Spangler, costumes by Ilona Somogyi, lighting by David Weiner and sound by Obadiah Eaves.