Sacha Baron Cohen to star in Quentin Tarantino’s West End play

Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen will star in a new play in London’s West End from Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino.

The Popinjay Cavalier, set in 1830s Europe, was announced earlier this year and is the first play to be written for stage by the US filmmaker, who is also set to direct.

Baron Cohen said he was “beyond delighted” to be working with Tarantino, saying: “When the best director in the world calls, you don’t ask questions.”

The director, best known for violent film classics Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, has said he is “keen with anticipation to give the West End a great night out”.

The play is set to premiere in March next year, with tickets available from Monday.

The production was announced in March this year as a “rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen”.

Baron Cohen, 54, is known for his self-created comic characters including infamous spoof wannabe gangster Ali G, Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, and Austrian fashionista Brüno Gehard.

He has won two Baftas and three Golden Globes, as well as being nominated for three Oscars and six Emmys.

The full cast for The Popinjay Cavalier is planned to be announced at a later date.

The play will be co-produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which distributed Tarantino’s most recent film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and Sonia Friedman Productions, which has overseen hits like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Paddington the Musical.