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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

Previews: New pictures of Shakespeare In Love

First images of the stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love have been released this week. 

The play has been adapted for the stage by Lee Hall and features a company of 28 actors and musicians, plus a dog.

Previews are until 22 July and opening night is 23 July.


Photo info and credit:
Company with Tom Bateman as Will. 
Lucy Briggs-Owen as Viola with Company.
Company
Photos by Johan Persson

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