Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Polly’s pleb adventure

Plus: My Mother Said I Never Should is a chick-flick evening with one great selling point: Maureen Lipman

issue 30 April 2016

Down and Out in Paris and London is a brilliant specimen from a disreputable branch of writing: the chav safari, the underclass minibreak, the sojourn on the scrapheap that inspires a literary monument. Orwell’s first book was turned down by Faber boss T.S. Eliot, who received the script under its original title, Confessions of a Dishwasher. New Diorama’s dramatisation brilliantly captures the raffish sleaziness of Paris in the 1920s. Orwell’s crew of thieves, parasites and drifters come across as comradely and charming in this magnificently squalid setting. The austere lighting and the ingenious stage effects are done with tremendous economy. There are flashes of bleak humour too. Orwell’s anvil-faced landlady dismisses his complaints about bedbugs claiming that the insects’ choice of habitat proves the desirability of her establishment.

The show takes a strange turn when it moves to London.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in