The Libertine

Re-issued alongside the release of John Malkovich's outrageously sexy film, starring Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, Jack Devenport and Malkovich himself. The Libertine was first seen at the Royal Court in 1994, in a production by Max Stafford-Clark's Out of Joint. The play is based on the life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, friend and confidant of Charles II and the most notorious and licentious rake of his age. Thoroughly modern in its sensibility and in its attitude to Rochester's endless sexual indulgence, it is both an accurate portrait of the period and a very funny comedy of manners. This new film adaptation has been scripted by Stephen Jeffreys and it is unusually faithful to the original play. Produced by John Malkovich, who also cameos as Charles II, directed by Laurence Dunmore, and starring Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton, it promises to be one of the biggest releases of the autumn.