Catastrophe

Background >

Cast
D – the Director in Beckett’s play – is played by Harold Pinter, one of the leading dramatists of the twentieth century. Pinter is also an accomplished actor, director, screenwriter, poet and critic. His plays include The Caretaker, The Lover, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man's Land and Betrayal. Screenplays include The Last Tycoon, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Handmaid's Tale, The Comfort of Strangers, Remains of the Day and The Trial. In recent years he has become more active as a director, overseeing David Mamet's Oleanna and several works by Simon Gray.

The film, theatre and television career of the late John Gielgud (P) extended over many decades. His most memorable film performances include the Oscar-winning Shine, First Knight, Prospero's Books, Arthur and The Whistleblower, among numerous others. His television credits include Gulliver's Travels, Scarlett, Romance on the Orient Express, Oedipus and War and Remembrance. Gielgud’s final theatre performance was in The Best of Friends in London's West End, in 1987. Poignantly, Catastrophe was Gielgud’s final screen appearance, filmed just a few weeks before his death.

Rebecca Pidgeon (A) has worked extensively in theatre, film and television in Britain and in the US. In theatre, she performed in the National Theatre's productions of The Changeling, When We Were Women and Speed the Plow. In the US, David Mamet directed her in Oleanna and in Dangerous Corner. She has also worked with Mamet in several of his films including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, The Winslow Boy and State and Main.