Bedlam

Synopsis

18th-century London, noisy and chaotic. Bedlam - the city’s ancient hospital for the insane - is under the influence of Dr Sidney Carew for whom profit and lechery come before prevention or cure. But with the arrival of a lovely country girl and the appointment of a more enlightened governor, Carew’s inhuman regime starts to crumble, along with his own sanity. With a cast of doctors, patients, poets, Christians and cannibals, and set against an anarchic backdrop of binge drinkers and ballad singers, Bedlam is an asylum for lust, rage, comedy, song and romance.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 10 September 2010

The first new play by a female playwright to be presented at Shakespeare’s Globe, old or new, is a restrained foray into madness – good idea – in a fictional early 18th century asylum run by a bigoted, drunken lunatic and his deranged son.

There’s none of the disturbing, outlandish theatricality of the Marat/Sade about Nell Leyshon’s perfectly enjoyable, simple scenario, nor too much wackiness or ferocity along the lines of Ken Campbell’s long ago The Madness Museum on television.

Instead, Jessica Swale’s tasteful staging on a bare boards setting is decked out with ballads and old songs, outings to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (fan dancers, acrobats and a dancing bear) and St Giles (think Hogarth’s “Gin Lane”), and a thwarted love story between the waif-like, red-haired farm girl May Garnett (beguiling newcomer Rose Leslie) and her West Country sailor boy, Billy (Daon Broni).

An eff...

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Latest User Review

Carol Hunter - 12 September 2010:

Came out feeling short changed. As a devotee of the Globe, I was spoiled by the brilliance of Trevor Griffeths 'A New World'last summer and expected the same depth from Leyshon. The play lacked substance. A missed opportunity for much more social commentary....

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