Gaslight
Pike appears as Bella Manningham in the stage play of the Victorian thriller directed by Peter Gill. Bella is tormented by a mentally unstable husband who attempts to convince her that she is insane. Co-starring Patrick Hamilton.
Summer and Smoke
Pike plays Alma Winemiller in the adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play. In 1916 in the Deep South, Alma falls in love with the son of her neighbour. Co-starring Chris Carmack.
All five of the central characters have been catastrophically let down by their parents, and are looking for ways to patch up that void. Lacking in the most part a language of love, they seek to replace this with sex. All, that is, apart from my character, Alma. All her life she has been desperately in love with the son of the local doctor, and she believes that she craves his mind, unable to acknowledge that what she is really feeling is lust.
The Libertine
Pike plays Elizabeth Barry in Laurence Dunmore and Stephen Jeffreys’ adaptation of Jeffreys’ play. The decadent Earl of Rochester takes Elizabeth, a struggling actress, as his mistress and later his wife.
Hitchcock Blonde
Pike appears in Terry Johnson’s play Hitchcock Blonde at the Royal Court Theatre. Johnson discusses the theme of the play:
You’ve actually reached a point in your life where the only play you could possibly write is a play about falling in love with a younger woman.
Inadvertently ordering the same dish as Hitchcock eats in the play:
I remember the first time I took Rosamund to lunch I accidentally ordered dover sole and immediately changed my order in case she left the restaurant.
Pike’s nude scene:
The agreement has always been that it’s in the play, you do it if you want to do it.