The production will continue to Oct. 3. The play is directed by Tim Stark, with lighting by Mark Doubleday and design by Cordelia Chisholm. The play is produced by Andrew Jenkins and Thomas Hopkins.
According to press materials, the play is set in April 1994, and "explores what it means to dice with death when being alive proves to be all too painful and peace seems elusive. A 27 year-old man, sitting alone in an attic extension, is on the cusp of becoming a Seattle suicide statistic. But this man is no 'number and name' to be reported in a local newspaper. He is an icon, albeit a reluctant one. Heartbreakingly, he is a father and husband too. This man is Kurt Cobain. Weary of being hailed as 'Grunge King', Kurt is about to pull the trigger of the gun in his hand and join the leagues of rock star deaths down the ages. Then, without invitation, he finds he has company, in the form of a shadowy figure purporting to be the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious, Kurt's hero. Strangely companionship' is exactly what the long-dead bassist offers Kurt, whether he wants it or not. Whether Sid is a ghost, a figment of Kurt's imagination, a hallucination, a dream, or a Punk impersonator remains to be seen as the two musicians, trade quips and quotes about the emptiness of fame and a mutual understanding of drug addiction and self-destruction."
Dyer (who plays Sid Vicious) has previously appeared onstage in the Almeida's production of Harold Pinter's Celebration in 2000, which was subsequently seen in New York at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 2001 as part of the Pinter Festival. He has subsequently appeared in Pinter revivals at the National (No Man's Land in 2001) and Almeida (of The Homecoming in 2008). He also appeared in the Almeida's 1999 production of Peter Gill's Certain Young Men. His film roles include "Human Traffic," "High Heels and Low Lifes," "Borstal Boy," "Mean Machine," "Goodbye Charlie Bright," "The Football Factory," "The Business" and "Outlaw." On TV, he has appeared in "Skins," "Hotel Babylon" and "Kiss of Death." He has presented "The Real Football Factories," "The Real Football Factories International" and "Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men" for Bravo Television.
Evans (who plays Kurt Cobain) has appeared on TV in "Teachers," "The Virgin Queen," "Murder City," "Ashes to Ashes," "Gentley's Last Stand" and "The Take." On film he has appeared in "The Boys from County Clare," "Being Julia," "The Situation," "Cashback," "Boy A" and "Telstar." He has previously been seen onstage in a tour of Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange in 2005.
Playwright Smiles was last represented in the West End by the transfer of his play Ying Tong about the Goons to the New Ambassadors Theatre in 2005. Other recent plays include The Ho Ho Club, Year of the Rat and Pythonesque. To book tickets contact the box office at 0844 871 7632 or visit www.kurtandsid.com.
