Matt Lucas, co-star of Little Britain, is to play Kenneth Halliwell in Prick Up Your Ears (Comedy Theatre, September 17 - December 6), a new play inspired by John Lahr’s biography and the diaries of Joe Orton, the brilliant gay author of the plays What the Butler Saw and Entertaining Mr Sloane. Read the full story

Adrian Pagan’s acclaimed play The Back Room, about the lives of seven male prostitutes, has had its run extended at London’s Cock Tavern Theatre until May 2. After its first run at the Pleasance Theatre in 1998 it later transferred to The Bush Theatre in 1999, where it won the Verity Bargate Award, and with the current revival receiving superb reviews from London’s critics it has now been optioned for a TV adaptation.
 
Set in an Earls Court brothel, The Back Room is a sex comedy following the power-play between the escorts (one of them, Paul, is an ex-British Army soldier turning tricks to pay his child maintenance) and their ‘madam’ (Gary, who’s servicing a closeted celebrity footballer) over several consecutive Saturdays as they laugh, fight, swap sex-tips and, in the case of two of the boys, fall in love with each other.
 
Paul Burston of Time Out wrote: “There are some laugh-out-loud moments….if its a fun night out you’re after, and you aren’t offended by the sight of fit young men with their clothes off, rest assured that ‘The Back Room’ has plenty of both.”, while My London Your London’s Natalie Bennett said: “Some of the humour is distinctly of its sub-culture: some members of the audience were in stitches….this is joyful entertainment….the late playwright Adrian Pagan managed a lovely balance between drama, pathos and solid laughs.”

www.cocktaverntheatre.com