OLEANNA
‘Excuse me, but those are not accusations. They have been proved. They are facts.’
Tickets £12, £10 AND £8
A college professor finds himself the subject of a potentially career-wrecking accusation from one of his female students. But is it a case of sexual harassment or ‘political correctness gone mad’? Probably the most politically incendiary play of the 1990s, by one of America’s greatest living playwrights, this hugely provocative two-hander hits a societal nerve that is every bit as raw today, and which locks Daily Mail and Guardian prejudices head-to-head in a bear-pit of visceral intensity. Contains strong language.
‘One of the most radioactive male-female confrontations ever committed to the stage’ –Talkin’ Broadway Review.
DOUBLE FALSEHOOD
‘This must not be a boy. His voice, mien, gesture, ev’rything he does, favour of soft and female delicacy.’
Tickets £12, £10 AND £8
‘Double Falsehood’ was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1727 – the impresario Lewis Theobald claiming that he had adapted it from a Shakespeare play. For almost 300 years the play has been disregarded, or treated as a hoax. However, its credentials were endorsed in 2010 when it was published in the Arden Shakespeare series. Scholars now believe it to be based on ‘The History of Cardenio’ – a lost collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher, based in turn on Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ (1605). Set in Spain, this romantic tragi-comedy tells of two brothers, one full of virtue; the other an aristocratic villain who pursues two women of vastly different backgrounds.
‘The good old master of the English drama is by a kind of miracle recall’d from his grave and given to us once again’ – The London Journal.
FORTY YEARS ON
‘Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall.’
Tickets £12, £10 AND £8
The headmaster of Albion Public School views the end-of-year review as an opportunity to wallow in nostalgia, and to celebrate all that was once glorious about our country. Unfortunately, his pupils and teachers have other ideas. Bennett’s most fondly regarded play, and the one which confirmed his status as ‘Britain’s best loved writer’, is a hugely entertaining series of interlinked sketches and poignant historical vignettes covering two world wars, which together form an elegant valediction for a lost innocence and a lost England. Vintage Bennett, it’s by turns, moving, eloquent, rude and very, very funny.
‘Wry, irreverent and often wildly hilarious… I found myself laughing helplessly…’ – The Guardian.
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