Theatre review: Magnificence

Nowadays Howard Brenton is our top writer of history plays but in the 1970s he was a more overtly political writer, and things don't get much more overt than Magnificence, which opens with a group of idealistic young protesters breaking into - what they think is - an abandoned flat. In the first sign of why the Finborough might have seen the play as ripe for revival, they're planning to squat there in protest at people being made homeless all over London while houses are left empty, as tenants get kicked out of flats they've lived in all their lives so they can be redeveloped and rented out at an inflated price. They're enthusiastic and somewhat naïve, but as the days go by the squat is watched by bailiff Slaughter (Chris Porter) - a man profiting from the situation they're campaigning against, and one with a reputation for dangerous practices.

Theatre review: The Illusion

Pierre Corneille's 1636 play The Illusion, presented at Southwark Playhouse in an adaptation by Tony Kushner, is certainly unusual. A lawyer, Pridamant (James Clyde,) who long ago drove his son away and lost touch, is keen to find out what happened to him. He visits the magician Alcandre (Melanie Jessop) who promises to show him a series of illusions that'll replay various important scenes from the son's life: Penniless, Calisto (Charlie Archer) will fall for an upper-class heiress (Daisy Hughes) whose father disapproves, fight off a couple of rivals for her hand (Daniel Easton, Adam Jackson-Smith,) be caught up in the machinations of a lady's maid (Shanaya Rafaat) and have numerous affairs, leading him into dangerous adventures. But how reliable are the illusions? The characters' names have a tendency to change from one scene to the next, and if Pridamant doesn't like what he sees, the magician can make the story change direction. Is she just showing him what he wants to see?