The Comedy Theatre, part of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) since 2000, is to be renamed The Harold Pinter Theatre in time for the opening of Arial Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden on 13th October.

The Comedy Theatre has seen a very broad range of shows since it was built back in 1881 (then known as the Royal Comedy Theatre) but in the last 21 years has been the West End home for seven Pinter productions including The Homecoming, No Man’s Land, Moonlight, The Hothouse, a hugely successful production of The Caretaker with Michael Gambon, The Lover, The Collection and most recently, a sell-out run of Ian Rickson’s production of Betrayal with Kristin Scott Thomas. Pinter also directed shows at the Comedy including Otherwise Engaged, Twelve Angry Men, The Caretaker and Simon Gray’s The Old Masters.

“The work of Pinter has become an integral part of the history of the Comedy Theatre” says Howard Panter, ATG’s Joint Chief Executive and Creative Director. “The re-naming of one of our most successful West End theatres is a fitting tribute to a man who made such a mark on British theatre who, over his 50 year career, became recognised as one of the most influential modern British dramatists.”

Harold Pinter was born in 1930 in East London and wrote 32 plays, 22 screenplays and directed 36 theatre productions. He received a vast array of awards including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 and was made a Companion of Honour in 2002. Pinter was married to Antonia Fraser who said “Harold would have been so pleased by this honour and I am very moved at the news”.

There is also a Harold Pinter Studio at Queen Mary and Westfield College.