London : Swimming With Sharks , based on the film of the same name, plays its final performance today at the Vaudeville Theatre. Leading the production is Christian Slater, starring as Buddy Ackerman. Joining him in the play is Helen Baxdale as Dawn Lockard, Matt Smith as Guy as well as Elizabeth Croft, Arthur Darvill, Mark Edel-Hunt, Jonathan Newth, and Fanos Xenofos.
The creative team includes design by Dick Bird, lighting design by Paul Anderson, sound design by Matt McKenzie, and direction by Wilson Milam.
In the play, written by Michael Lesslie, Buddy Ackerman is an incendiary, irresistible movie producer, one of Hollywood’s most powerful men, and the boss from hell. Guy, his eager and idealistic new assistant and would-be screenwriter, soon finds himself serving as Buddy’s personal slave. He doggedly endures Buddy’s tantrums and relentless abuse in the hope that he will be given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to move up the Hollywood ladder. But the dream career seems a long way off when you’re working for Buddy 24/7, doing everything from getting him coffee to getting him laid.
When such an opportunity arises, Guy attempts to play the Hollywood system and preserve his integrity by drawing his high-powered producer girlfriend into a key deal with Buddy. Soon, however, he loses himself in Buddy’s amoral world, irrevocably shattering his idealism and leading to a bitterly funny confrontation between mentor, protégé and lover that has devastating consequences for them all.
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