London Assurance
Olivier, in rep until 2 June
Bedroom Farce
Duke of York’s, booking to 10 July
Trickster nature has been maliciously kind to Simon Russell Beale. It made him the leading actor of his generation and instilled in him a desire to perform Shakespeare’s awesome roll-call of warrior princes. It also built him like a chest of drawers. His physique has always hampered his Shakespearean outings, so it’s a great relief, and a pleasure, to see him on the stage of the National in a role that complements every last bauble in his dazzling thesaurus of effects.
London Assurance, a slapstick comedy, was written in 1841 by a 20-year-old playwright, Dion Boucicault. It became an instant classic and has been revived many times since but no production can have benefited from such a sublime lead performance.
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