Quentin Tarantino to stage 'swashbuckling comedy' The Popinjay Cavalier in London theatre

Film director Quentin Tarantino is coming to London's West End to stage a "swashbuckling comedy" play set in 1830s Europe. The US film-maker is best known for blood-soaked film classics such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, but is switching his attention to theatre to write and direct The Popinjay Cavalier. The play will be "a rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen", and will reach the stage in early 2027, the announcement said. It is also billed as "a sweeping celebration of theatre and its heightened romance, told with Tarantino's signature style and unmistakable wit". There are no details yet of who will be in the cast, which theatre will host it or how much tickets will cost. It will be Tarantino's debut as a theatre writer and director, and he has repeatedly spoken about planning to retire from movies after making 10 films. He has made nine so far - if Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 are counted together - with the most recent being 2019's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. He became one of Hollywood's most celebrated and popular film-makers in the 1990s and has won two Oscars, for writing Pulp Fiction