Tale of two radical thinkers
A NEW production of Jack Shepherd's play In Lambeth, starring the veteran actor, comes to the Stephen Joseph Theatre next week.
It looks at a Britain shaken by the momentous turmoil across the channel, when France was in revolution.
Events are seen through the eyes of the revolutionary Thomas Paine and the visionary William Blake.
On the eve of the storming of the Bastille, Paine comes to pay his respects to Blake. In a meeting of radical minds, Paine argues for radical revolutionary change while Blake argues that perhaps no revolution is worth the blood spilled.
In Lambeth was Shepherd’s first stage play, premiered at London’s Dulwich Tavern in 1989. Starring Michael Maloney and Bob Peck, it transferred to the Donmar Warehouse and won a Time Out award.
Now Love&Madness artistic director Neil Sheppeck brings his own style to a new production, starring Shepherd as Paine, Luke Shaw as Blake and Lisa Bealby as Catherine Blake.
“The production previewed at the Tom Paine festival in Lewes last summer to excellent audience and critical response,” says SJT press officer Lizzie Glazier.
The Independent praised “a fascinating clash between two types of revolutionary”. The Times commented: “Charm is not a quality one would immediately associate with either Blake or Paine, but Shepherd’s play about a meeting between the two has it in abundance.”
Leeds-born Jack Shepherd is one of the UK’s best-known character actors, with a growing reputation as a writer and director. Born in 1940, he made his film debut in 1968 and appeared in Wonderland, Charlotte Grey and The Golden Compass. But it is perhaps his many TV roles, including Bill Brand and Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe, that have brought him most fame. He was in Only When I Laugh at the SJT last April.
Love&Madness was founded in 2000 by Neil Sheppeck. The company has become one of the hardest working in the country, producing a wide range of engaging, accessible theatre drawing on classic texts and stories for London seasons and tours of the UK and Ireland. The company are currently presenting the Desire & Destruction season, featuring Sadie Frost and Carl Barat, at London’s Riverside Studios.
In Lambeth, which contains nudity, can be seen next Monday to Saturday.
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