Apologia Tickets

Apologia is a fresh masterpiece by playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell. It reveals a totally disastrous family reunion, the vehicle the playwright uses to show what has happened to a pair of typical '60s idealists and their children, and it premièred at London's Bush Theatre in June 2009. Now it's back, and it's tipped to become a massive hit.

The plot? Kristin Miller is in her 60s, a successful, well known art historian. In the 1960s, as a young mum, she followed the revolution, allowing her politics and vocation to lead her into protests and onto marches for a host of causes. Now jaded, cynical and approaching retirement, she has just written a book about her youth, but it completely fails to mention her two children Simon and Peter.

When Simon, Peter and their wives Trudi and Claire get together at their mother's country cottage in the countryside to celebrate her 60th birthday, she ends up baffled and outraged by the two men's wholly different versions of the past. As the evening progresses, everyone at the cottage is forced to deal with the emotional cost of Kristin’s dedication to her youthful passions.

The critics gave the première a resounding thumbs up, calling it a play that more than fulfilled the promise of the playwright's first offering, The Pride, and earning him an accolade from Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph as a “dramatist of rare distinction”.

Stockard Channing is the perfect actor for the starring role. She's a performer with real gravitas, a Tony and Emmy award winner. She hasn't been on stage in London for a decade, making her return an exciting event all on its own. And she's been praised for delivering a fresh, droll intelligence to the role of the feminist revolutionary Kristin. Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman plays Claire. Desmond Barrit plays Hugh and Joseph Millson plays the dual role of Kristin's sons beautifully. Last but not least, Laura Carmichael plays Trudi.

Campbell’s play is an exercise in super-sharp farce, but there's much more to it than that. It's also extremely sad, a tragedy of sorts, the story of someone who was once at the front line of radicalism who has made terrible sacrifices to pave the way for future generations. But those future generations neither know nor care. The guests at Kristin's 60th party really don't 'get' why she acted as she did, and they certainly can't forgive her memoir.

Director Jamie Lloyd has worked with the playwright before, on The Pride at Trafalgar Studios during 2013. Designer Soutra Gilmour’s kitchen set is perfectly realised, and actor Joseph Millson – who plays both of Kristin’s sons – performs both roles to intelligent perfection. It's funny, it's defiant, it's moving and it's a contemporary drama that deserves a place in every serious theatre fan's wish list.