Where: The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, Brockley SE4 2DH
£: 12 (10 concessions)
What is it?
Rolling Sky Productions present The Hang of the Gaol, written by Howard Barker and directed by Doug Rollins. The Hang of the Gaol, one of Barker’s most successful plays, was first performed at the RSC’s Warehouse Theatre in 1978. It is a study in guilt and collusion. With its topicality undiminished, it takes the lid off one of the most enclosed institutions in this or any society – the prison.
When a fire demolishes the Governor’s pride, subsequent investigation turns up more shame than the authorities deem acceptable. A cover-up is required, and George Jardine, the most unconventional of civil servants, near retirement and hungry for a knighthood, is recruited for the task.
Howard Barker shows remarkable candour in both his subject matter and his rich and iconoclastic use of the language. This original and poetic manipulation of speech and metaphor has created a vivid theatrical medium for which he is justly celebrated. His theatre is ruthlessly inventive and makes few concessions, but as he himself has written, `Nothing in my plays is incredible. It is the world which is incredible.’
More info: Brockley Jack