John Wolfson’s The Inn at Lydda, at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, is based on an incident recorded in The Death of Pilate, which can be found in the New Testament Apocrypha.
The mortally ill Emperor Tiberius (Stephen Boxer) in Rome hears about a man who is able to heal the sick; he decides to journey to Judea to be healed by him, only to find he has arrived too late. The man had been crucified three days earlier. Wolfson imagines a meeting between the risen Christ (Samuel Collings) and the Emperor. Will Christ heal a mass murderer?
I presumed the play was going to be serious and was much surprised to find it was so trivial and banal. Thirty-two years on, the Magi are still alive and haven’t aged. The trio (headed by Joseph Marcell) would not be out of place in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Similarly, Tiberius’s astrologer (David Cardy) is a perfect role for Frankie Howerd in his Up Pompeii! mode.
John, the Apostle, who witnesses the meeting, is inspired to write the Book of Revelation. But it is Caligula (Philip Cumbus) who has the most arresting speech, when he prophesises that the carnage created in the next 2,000 years by Christians will be far greater than anything done by the Roman Empire.
Beth Steel’s latest play, Labyrinth, painstakingly researched, is about the Latin American debt crisis in the 1970s and 1980s in which everybody is bankrupt, financially and morally.
A young man (Sean Delaney), barely out of college, lands a job as a trainee in an international private bank. His innocence is soon corrupted by his greedy and blatantly dishonest mentor (Tom Weston-Jones).
If you have seen Lucy Prebble’s Enron on stage and if you have seen Wall Street, Wolf of Wall Street and Margin Call on film, you may feel you do not need to see Labyrinth at Hampstead Theatre. Besides, the new play, though energetically directed, doesn’t have the emotional impact of Steel’s award-winning play about striking miners, Wonderland.
For many people AA Milne will mean Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin and the EH Shepard drawings. But Milne (1882-1956), novelist, screenwriter and writer of light verse for children, who wrote humorous essays for Punch and propaganda in World War 1, was also a prolific playwright in the late 1910s and early 1920s.
His plays, much influenced by JM Barrie, are sentimental and whimsical. The Dover Road premiered in New York in 1921 and in London in 1922. The comedy, affectionately revived by Nichola McAuliffe at Jermyn Street Theatre and nicely acted, certainly has its funny moments.
Anne (Georgia Maguire) and Leonard (Tom Durant-Pritchard), an eloping couple, take refuge in a strange mansion after their car crashes on their way to Paris. The couple are taken prisoner and put on a week’s probation, in order to give them a taste of marital life and check whether they are really suited to each other and ready to take the plunge.
The mansion is run by the very rich and mysterious Mr Latimer (Patrick Ryecart), who develops a crush on sweet Anne and may remind older theatregoers of Lob, the impish character in Barrie’s “second chance” play, Dear Brutus.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.