The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

Synopsis

Tressell's iconic Edwardian novel evokes a year in the lives of a team of builders as they struggle to survive on the breadline. Humour is never very far away as Tressell satirises the scams and tricks of the trade - still familiar to householders today - used by skinflint bosses to save time and money.

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 23 March 2012

It’s a bit of a déjà vu experience, taking me back to the 1970s and the days of agit prop theatre at the likes of the old Half Moon and Unity, right down to the girl flogging copies of Socialist Worker as the audience leaves. Neil Gore’s version of Stephen Lowe’s dramatisation of Robert Tressell’s early 20th century novel is more cuddly than some which I have seen, but it tries too hard to be too many different things for too diverse an audience.

That’s not to say that Louise Townsend’s production isn’t well-served by its two very hard-working performers. Gore and Rodney Matthews play a welter of parts as the story of jobbing painters and decorators being as much manipulated by their foreman as by their actual employer unfolds. Fine Time Fontayne’s design clutters the stage with ladders and barrels, rickety tables, dust sheets and even a magic lantern – not to mention a tea party of puppets. <...

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