by Francis Beaumont
Directed by Nick Hutchison
Designed by Delia Peel

Thursday 21 October - Saturday 30 October 2004

The most easily enjoyable satire on London and its citizens from the Jacobean period was first staged at the intimate Blackfriars Theatre by one of Shakespeare's major successors.

Breaking through the established conventions, dissatisfied members of an audience, a nouveau riche grocer and his wife, invade the stage to demand that the actors change the play they are offering in order to celebrate the city merchants in heroic style, and for want of another actor insist that their apprentice, Rafe, be given the leading part. The result is an hilarious, often anarchic entertainment with a plot that is constantly redirected by the grocer to the astonishment and bewilderment of the actors.

An exuberant start to the Autumn Season directed by ex-RSC actor, Nick Hutchison.  Archive.org