King Lear

A stage littered with bin bags and dominated by a crumbling shop front is lit in a chilling blue half-light. A cast and crew of over twenty pupils anxiously run lines and make their final technical checks. Wind machines are powered up backstage for the play’s climactic storm scene whilst a professional designer makes final tweaks to the vintage costumes sourced, especially for the show…

After a hiatus of two years, the Samuel Pepys Theatre is preparing for the dress rehearsal of the production that will mark the triumphant return of live audiences to St Paul’s Drama: King Lear. Over the next three nights, we are delighted to share with you a radical new staging of Shakespeare’s finest tragedy, the result of over three month’s hard work and more than one hundred hours of rehearsal by a talented cast of senior actors.

With the action transposed to 1970s Britain, and with a catwalk of 70s fashions and a soundtrack of 70s classics, this is King Lear as you’ve never seen it before. A trailer for the production can be seen here. Performances take place at 7:30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with tickets (£10) available via our online booking system here.

I look forward to seeing many of you there for what I hope will be an exhilarating theatrical experience to mark the re-opening of the Samuel Pepys Theatre. 

Written by Christian Anthony, Director of Drama