Carl Barât and Sadie Frost to Star in Fool for Love in Rep in London

By Mark Shenton
November 27, 2009

Carl Barât and Sadie Frost are to star as Eddie and May respectively in a new production of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, being presented as part of a new repertory theatre season of plays at London's Riverside Studios.

Presented under the umbrella title Desire & Destruction by theatre company Love&Madness, Frost will also appear as Lady Anne in Shakespeare's Richard III.

The season, which runs from Jan. 25 through March 21, 2010, will also include Demi-Monde, a devised piece by Love&Madness in collaboration with Associate Artist Jack Shepherd which will focus on socialist and designer, William Morris. The press nights will be Jan. 28 for Fool for Love, Feb. 4 for Richard III and Feb. 17 for Demi Monde.

Love&Madness was founded in 2000 by artistic director Neil Sheppeck. In a press statement, Sheppeck comments, "We are thrilled to have been given the opportunity to work with both Sadie and Carl and hope that through their involvement with the company we will be able to entertain not only regular theatre-goers but also to attract a whole new audience into the theatre for the first time."

Barât, formerly frontman and lead guitarist of Dirty Pretty Things who is best known for being the co-frontman with Peter Doherty of indie rock band The Libertines, has commented in a press statement, "I have always wanted to act, so when Sadie and Neil offered me this I was very much up for it. It's certainly one hell of a challenge, but I'm really enjoying the process of collaboration."

Frost was last seen on the London stage earlier this year in a one-woman play called Touched that played at the Trafalgar Studios 2 in February. Frost, who is also known for her work as creative director of the fashion label Frost French that she co-owns with her friend Jemima French, first acted on stage when she joined the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (a city in which she had spent much of her childhood) to appear in Robin Glendinning's Mumbo Jumbo, directed by Nicholas Hytner in 1986, that subsequently transferred to London's Lyric Hammersmith. She subsequently had parts in the TV series "Press Gang" and "Casualty," before going on to appear in over 20 films; her debut was in "Diamond Skulls," and she subsequently played vampire Lucy Wetenra in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), "Uprising," "Shopping" and "The Heavy," working alongside actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Rhys Ifans, David Schwimmer, Jude Law, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. She has also worked as producer and co-producer on "Love, Honour, and Obey," "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Jude Law, and also three of her own short films. She has just completed directing her first short film "Mrs Olsen." She also previously appeared in music videos, including various songs for Spandau Ballet, where she met her first husband Gary Kemp.

In a press statement, Frost has commented, "It has been amazing to have been asked to work with Neil Sheppeck and Love&Madness and I have loved the fact that, as a performer, I have been given the rare opportunity to be an integral part of the Company’s creative process."

To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 8237 1111, or visit www.loveandmadness.org for more details.