Rapacious newspaper entrepreneur brings verbal fireworks to Leamington stage

Howard Brenton and David Hare’s provocative play Pravda, which premiered in London in 1985 with Anthony Hopkins in the leading role, is being brought to Leamington by the Loft Theatre company from Wednesday until Saturday March 9.

Meaning ‘truth’ in Russian, Pravda is also the name of an old Soviet daily newspaper, which inspired the writers to write this sharp satire about the newspaper business.

At the centre of the play is Lambert Le Roux, an energetic, rapacious South African entrepreneur who, with the help of a very sharp Australian manager, sets out to devour chunks of the British press.

He gobbles up a provincial daily, a salacious tabloid and a respected but ailing upmarket broadsheet, where he installs a favoured protégé.

But has the protégé, like Faust, actually sold his soul to the devil as he finds himself serving an amoral world of prurience, scandal, and corruption?

The Loft’s publicity officer Fran Hubbard said: “Pravda is a big play dealing with a large subject – presenting the news and selling it.

“There’s exploitation and humiliation, political wheeler-dealing, plots and counter plots and verbal fireworks in a play that explodes with life.”

The theatre’s production is directed by Gordon Vallins, with David Pinner, who played the lead role as Rooster Byron in the Loft’s 2012 production of Jerusalem, in the role of Lambert Le Roux.

He is accompanied by a company of 17 actors, playing more than 40 parts between them.

Gordon said: “The recent Levenson Enquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the British press is echoed in Pravda, but any similarity between Lambert Le Roux and Rupert Murdoch is purely coincidental!

“What we can promise the audience is a fun evening with a surprise and astonishing showbiz climax.”

Performances will be at 7.30pm each evening, except on the Sunday. Tickets are now available online, while people can also book by calling 0844 493 4938 between 9am and 5pm from Monday to Friday or visiting the theatre box office in person tonight (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) from 6.45pm to 8.30pm and on performance evenings.

Discounts for NUS card-holders and under-25s are available on the March 4 and 5 performances (tickets must be purchased in person on the night), while group discounts are also available on show nights excluding March 2 and 9.