Billie Piper to star in satirical 'phone hacking' play Great Britain
SHE'S FAMOUS for taking on more controversial roles, such as the high-class prostitute in The Secret Diaries Of A Call Girl, and it would seem Billie Piper's next move is equally as controversial.
The 31-year-old is preparing to star in a new production about the world of tabloid newspapers at the National Theatre.
The play, entitled Great Britain, has been created by the man behind stage hit One Man, Two Guvnors.
The National have billed the play, which opens next week, as "an anarchic satire about the press, the police and the political establishment".
It has been announced as attention is focused once again on newspaper phone hacking after former News Of The World editor Andy Coulson was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones yesterday.
The former boss of News International, Rebekah Brooks, was cleared of all charges against her following a trial lasting eight months.
The staging of the play at the Lyttelton Theatre had been put back for the verdicts to be returned.
Piper - who earned a best actress nomination for the Olivier Awards for a previous National appearance in The Effect - will play Paige Britain, who is described as an "ambitious young news editor of The Free Press, a tabloid newspaper locked in a never-ending battle for more readers".
Tickets went on sale today for the production, which is being directed by the theatre's artistic director Sir Nicholas Hytner, who steps down next year.