Party Tickets

There are many things that the West End is well known for; plays and musicals being only two of them. Another area that London excels at is great comedy, with one of the best live circuits in the world and many well known comedians stepping on stages across the capital.

Another comedy addition to the West End landscape takes the form of “Party”, the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe hit that arrives at the Arts Theatre for a brief run during March 2010. Written by and starring if.comedy Best Newcomer Tom Basden, it features a host of comedy stars, including 2009 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Tim Key alongside Anna Crilly, Jonny Sweet and Katy Wix.

The play was a much-loved show in the Scottish capital last year during what was a successful year for the annual festival. Now it arrives in the West End and follows in the footsteps of numerous other shows to make the transfer from one UK capital to another, with others including Barbershopera II” at the Trafalgar Studios and “Morecambe” at the Duchess Theatre.

With “Party”, Tom Basden has created a political comedy set entirely in the confines of a garden shed, embedded in deepest suburbia. It is here that four of our cast members take on the roles of four idealists who want to shape the world in the way they see fit and save it from its own undoing. To do so they decide to form their own political party, but their plans start to unravel when a fifth member (Key) joins the group and realises that the world does not need saving from itself, but from them. “Party” has therefore been celebrated as portrayal of the kinds of people that want to make a difference but have no idea how to go about doing it.

Tom Basden is a comedian, writer and actor who has performed in various comedy shows and appeared in the sketch group Cowards. Like many comics he started his career as part of the Cambridge Footlights before achieving success on the stand up circuit. His show “Tom Basden Won’t Say Anything” won the if.comedy Award for Best Newcomer at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has appeared in shows such as “Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better” for Radio 4.

“Party” is at the Arts Theatre from Monday 1st March 2010 until Saturday 13th March 2010.