Satire and sketch comedy was a vital part of West End theatre in the 1960’s but we don’t see a great deal of it these days so I was surprised to hear that veteran director Max Stafford-Clark still regards it as “a pungent corrective to political pomposity and ambition.”
If only it were! Perhaps his latest venture will restore its popularity and bite. He’s joined forces with some of the UK’s leading playwrights to create an evening of political satire, A VIEW FROM ISLINGTON NORTH, which opens at the Arts Theatre in May.
The production will pull together a number of short plays including THE ACCIDENTAL LEADER by Alistair Beaton and HOW TO GET AHEAD IN POLITICS by Stella Feehily. We’re promised David Hare will takes us inside George Osborne's mind in AYN RAND TAKES A STAND, and Mark Ravenhill will weight up the cost of war in THE MOTHER. Caryl Churchill's play TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE focuses on language in advertising.
Speaking of the productions origin’s Stafford-Clark said -
"Over a few years Out of Joint (His theatre company) has accumulated a number of short plays, originally written for other purposes... It occurred to me then that we had the beginnings of a pertinent and provocative evening! Alistair Beaton and David Hare happily responded to an invitation to write new plays, Billy Bragg agreed to compose a new song, and there we had A View from Islington North."
It should be a classy, funny and provocative evening from some of theatre's finest minds. It runs at the Arts Theatre, London from 18 May – 2 July 2016.
MISS ATOMIC BOMB, a new musical with book, music & lyrics By Adam Long, Gabriel Vick & Alex Jackson-Long sounds intriguing. It will launch at The St James’s Theatre in March. Adam Long is the co-creator, writer and director of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (Abridged), which ran off-Broadway and in the West End for nine years and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Comedy. So he knows all about creating a hit show.