The Last Days of the Empire

Synopsis

Set back stage in a decrepit old variety theatre, our heroes are an unlikely bunch of jobbing musicians. The lead singer has run off with two nude posers and the act is in trouble. Mike and Peggy Gorman's variety act - known as Pedro Gonzalez and his Caribbean rhythm - are faced with disaster unless they can get a new lead singer. Little do they guess that Joe is about to come to their rescue, but Joe is unlike anyone they've ever met...

Our Review:

31 July 2003

Alan Plater's claim that ‘plays can only be born out of obsession’, could raise concerns about some of his fellow playwrights. He lists the obsessions that gave birth to The Last Days of The Empire as ‘comedians, variety theatre, popular music and the 1950s’.

‘The Empire’ refers both to the soon-to-close theatre, and the dying British Empire, Plater gives us a wry elegy for what these two institutions stood for. So we find ourselves in the peeling dressing room of a run-down 1950s variety theatre, in the company of Pedro Gonzales and his Caribbean Rhythm band. Only, none of them has ever been to the Caribbean. Instead they hail from closer corners of the Empire: Birmingham, Glasgow, West Hartlepool and Leeds.

In the first half, we enter the world of these travelling players, and are transported to an era where calypso vies with rock ‘n’ roll to be the next big thing and the television revolution has begun (with the screening of the Queens coronatio...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (193.118.203.3) - 22 August 2003:

The WOS reviewer has said it all except what tremendous fun it all is. Alan Plater has created a set of characters worthy of HiDeHi at its best and this has something to say for all of us....the importance of hope. I came away beaming (and I have little sense of humour, I'm told) ...

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