Exhilarating Olympic Themed Theatre "He who honours God, will himself be honoured. "Note handed to Liddell before the race by an American competitor Company in Chariots of Fire with Michael Wallace…
Edward Hall directs in a reconfigured Hampstead Theatre with a double revolve stage and the audience circling the stage. A running track surrounds the stage with some of the audience sitting inside the track, others higher up in the circle and above with advertising banners for Lipton's Tea and other period products. The opening scene sees modern British Olympic contenders, warming up, give way to men in 1920s athletics kit, poised on starting blocks and running around the track to Vangelis's beautiful film score. Scott Ambler has choreographed the runners who prepare, limber up and then fly round the stadium. It is exciting and looks dangerous as they make the turns at speed.
Mike Bartlett may be our best British playwright. With each play he writes he demonstrates a variety of talent and perception, inventing new and diverse subjects.His latest play surprised some of the critical fraternity, who hadn't done their homework, when they realised his modern history play, like Shakespeare's histories was in verse. Except that it isn't accurate to call King Charles III a history play as it is about events that haven't yet taken place.