The Magistrate

Synopsis

Hollywood's John Lithgow plays the title role in the new National Theatre revival of The Magistrate alongside Olivier Award winner Nancy Carroll as his wife.

First performed in the 1880s. Agatha's son Cis is an extraordinarily precocious boy for his mere fourteen years. He is a 'regular young card'. Only Agatha knows that Cis is actually nineteen years old, having lied about her own age when she married her second husband, the good-hearted and honest magistrate, Mr Poskett.

When Cis' godfather returns from Bengal the cat looks certain to escape the bag. Panic ensues and she escapes to plot with her sister. Meanwhile, Cis has persuaded Mr Poskett to accompany him for drinks. Whilst each becomes embroiled in their own private world of deception, a whole trunk of tricks and surprises start to brew, on which the cover must eventually blow. 'Time' is called on the preposterous proceedings but not before total chaos reigns supreme

Running at the National Theatre's Olivier until 10 February, book your tickets now.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 22 November 2012

Offered up in a mood of seasonal jollity, Arthur Wing Pinero's genial Victorian farce welcomes that fine American actor and Broadway stalwart, John Lithgow, to the Olivier stage as the distressed police magistrate, Aeneas Posket.

Timothy Sheader's revival completes a mini-season of Pinero revivals - Dandy Dick on tour, The Second Mrs Tanqueray at the Rose, Kingston - that has reiterated, though not insisted on, the case for the great craftsman’s rehabilitation. Perhaps Trelawny of the Wells will complete the job next year.

Lithgow, meanwhile, ramrod tall, poker-backed and white-whiskered, cuts a wonderfully bizarre figure as a man whose position as the last defence of propriety in his own drawing room, as well as in public, has been rattled a little by lapsing into a late marriage.

He exudes a benign, airy manner in a light, quizzical voice, and he leads Sheader’s ad hoc company as if to the manner born, commanding b...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 18 January 2013:

NT Live offered an ideal chance to see a play which, if I had paid full price theatre tickets for, i would have felt short-changed. It's a slight and very silly farce with typically over-the-top performances. The best parts of Timothy Sheader's production are the Gilbert and Sullivan style musical interludes and Katrina Lindsay's pop up book sets. During the interval they showed an interview with Sheader who revealed he never laughs during rehearsals. Unfortunately I didn't much either and farce is not my favourite genre but at least we only had to drive a couple of miles rather than face a late-night train....

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