National Theatre to stage play about phone-hacking scandal set in tabloid newsroom

Breasts, bingo and gay vicars are to provide the crucial background noise to a new drama about hacking, its author has revealed.

Richard Bean, who wrote the hit show One Man, Two Guvnors, is close to finishing a play set in a tabloid newsroom during the hacking era.

It is to be performed by the National Theatre and will, he said, be “all tits and bingo, gay vicars – the typical tabloid fare, funny but grotesque” while taking a serious look at “state-of-the-nation, press, politics and police in bed with each other”.

Sir Nicholas Hytner, the National Theatre's Artistic Director, told The Guardian that it was commissioned while Bean was working on One Man, two Guvnors and said: “He tells us he's nearly ready to deliver it. We don't know when it will be produced.” A spokeswoman for the playwright also said the work on the phone-hacking scandal is near completion.