If you're able to get into London over the next few weeks and you appreciate the works of John Whitbourn, one of the truly great writers of English fantasy and horror, you should check out his play He Was A Bugger But I Loved Him, renamed Labelled With Love (why?) as part of a double bill at the Old Red Lion Playhouse. Get your tickets here. There are no interdimensional pathways, no malicious fays, no macabre twists in reality -- but there's a deeper kind of fantasy in the mysteries of love and memory, and that's what's on display in the drama.
Theatre might be a new calling for Mr Whitbourn. He recently completed another play, The Hunt For Blunt, about Sir Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Blunt turned out to be a Soviet spy, the so-called Fourth Man, and went to ground at Watts Gallery in Surrey when his cover was blown. That's where the play is set and where, with luck, it will be staged.
I hope the actors do the play justice, Dave. As a self-professed fan of Mr Whitbourn I feel I should go to one of the performances. But what with it being smack bang in the middle of London I might wait for the Blunt one (which I've also bought and read and is equally as good).
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of literary greats, I finally got around to reading some Philip K. Dick last week. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that 'Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?' actually features an electronic sheep! I enjoyed that, but found 'The Man In The High Castle' hard work.
I shall soon be able to report on the Monica Jones play, Andy, as I'll be seeing it in the next few days. I find PKD to sometimes be a struggle -- he has interesting ideas, but sometimes he doesn't quite finish the story. And despite having seen Blade Runner about twenty times (no exaggeration) I've never read Do Androids Dream...
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