Show ended
Theatre itself comes under the microscope in the latest from Tim Crouch, a tragi-comedy that takes as its starting point a performance of King Lear in another theatre than the one in which we, the audience, are sitting. But theatre is also a wider metaphor in a piece that is both cerebral and heartbreaking; both an act of the imagination and fully grounded in the realities of the present world in all its grimness. In King Lear, the Fool leaves the stage before the end of the play because the jokes have all run out. But the show still goes on. There are deep questions being asked in this clever, entertaining and ultimately moving piece, not least about whether we go on in the face of catastrophe and despair and try to change the story’s ending.
The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the ice-creams in the interval. In this extraordinary new solo work, Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send the character back to the wreckage of the world they left. Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel switches between scathing stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. It’s a celebration of live performance and a skewering of the state we’re in now. Age Recommendation: 14+