The Lightning Play
From: Thursday, 9th November 2006
To: Saturday, 6 January 2007
Our Review: 
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Synopsis
North London at Halloween, Max Villiers, a celebrity ghost writer, and his wife Harriet, a talented shopper, host a party. As Max connects his first plasma TV, the evening is hijacked by interference from the past. There are trick or treaters at the door and strangers on the brand new rug.
Our Review:
20 November 2006
To see Kean act, said Coleridge, was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning. Charlotte Jones’s much anticipated new play, her first theatre work since providing the libretto for The Woman in White, is similarly struck with the consequences of an electric storm.
It is Halloween, and the doorbell will signal an importunate child, trick or treating, or a new guest at the impromptu party arranged by the celebrity ghost writer, Max Villiers (Matthew Marsh), in his comfortable north London home. Max is trying to make his new 65-inch plasma screen television work, juggling remotes.
Increasingly, the screen is invaded by images of his daughter Anna when young, a daughter who is now a peace activist in Ramallah, like Rachel Corrie, en route to Burma. It turns out that Anna was a human shield from an early age, trying to save her younger brother in a gnarled old yew tree during a thunder and lightning storm fifteen years ago.
A play which...
Latest User Review
89.145.233.212) - 19 December 2006:
Structurally this piece is a bit messy but I honestly didn't care as there is so much to enjoy here. Charlotte Jones's raunchy, witty dialogue positively crackles, while her grasp of wacky English eccentricity means that the dramatis personae is fascinating and delightful. On top of that, there is a beautiful set by Lez Brotherstone and a top notch cast led by Matthew Marsh, Eleanor David, Lloyd Hutchinson, Adie Allen and the adorable Katherine Parkinson. There's also a heart-catching coup de theatre at the end. Strange, unsettling, frequently hilarious...I would definitely recommend this....
Cast
Eleanor David (Harriet)
Matthew Marsh (Max Villiers)
Adie Allen (Jacklyn Pettit)
Christina Cole (Tabby Morris)
Lloyd Hutchinson (Eddie Fox)
Simon Kassianides (Burak)
Katherine Parkinson (Imogen Cumberbatch)
Orlando Seale (Marcus Cumberbatch)
Creative
Charlotte Jones (Author)
Pinsent Masons (Corporate Sponsor)
Almeida (Producer)
Anna Mackmin (Director)
Lez Brotherston (Design)
Lez Brotherston (Costume)
Tim Mitchell (Lighting)
Jon Driscoll (video) (Design)
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