Sacha Baron Cohen to Star in Tarantino’s West End Stage Play

Here’s an unlikely pop-culture combination: Writer/director Quentin Tarantino and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who will apparently join forces for the play that Tarantino is writing and directing for the London stage.

The show is called The Popinjay Cavalier, which its producers describe as “a rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Baron Cohen, best known for his own comic creations in films like Borat and Bruno, will play the show’s title character. This will mark Baron Cohen’s West End debut.

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Although this is the first play of Tarantino’s career as a writer, he has appeared on Broadway before — as an actor. In 1995, at the height of his post Pulp Fiction fame, Tarantino co-starred in a revival of the 1966 show Wait Until Dark. The play follows a blind woman targeted by three criminals. The film version of Wait Until Dark starred Audrey Hepburn; in Tarantino’s production, the female lead was played by Marisa Tomei.

The Popinjay Cavalier is expected to debut on London’s West End at some time in 2027. (It’s no clear when or even if the show will transfer to Broadway.) Baron Cohen, who has recently appeared in streaming comedies like Ladies First and Balls Up, will next be seen in Ali G: Who Iz I? on October 23. While Tarantino is not directing the film, his script for The Further Mis-Adventures for Cliff Booth, a sequel to his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will debut in theaters on November 25 prior to streaming on Netflix the following month.