Theatre review: Land of the Free

simple8's return to the stage in 2024 saw them revive an old hit, and now premiere a completely new play - although I'm not sure Land of the Free will have quite as much call for revival as Moby Dick. Sebastian Armesto (also directing) and Dudley Hinton's play looks at a classic American villain, John Wilkes Booth, the first successful presidential assassin. Wilkes (Brandon Bassir) was an actor who we first meet as a teenager with his siblings, rehearsing the assassination scene from Julius Caesar behind their father's back. Junius Booth (Owen Oakeshott) was a successful Shakespearean actor who forbade his children from following him into the profession, but he was also an alcoholic and bigamist whose career, and family reputation were ruined when these secrets were exposed, somewhat undermining his authority.

Theatre review: Don't Sleep There Are Snakes

It's been a few years since their last Arcola residency and now minimalist theatre company simple8 resurface at the Park's main house. This time Sebastian Armesto and Dudley Hinton have gone - in another bit of déjà vu after Complicite's The Encounter - into the Amazon jungle with Don't Sleep There Are Snakes, based on Daniel Everett's book about trying to convert a remote tribe to Christianity. Dan (Mark Arends) is chosen as the missionary to the Pirahã because he's also a linguist, and nobody has ever been able to penetrate the Pirahã's language before. After a few false starts - not least of all them trying to kill him after he tells a local trader not to give them alcohol - he actually manages to understand the tribe's language, and the way it's tied in to their unique way of life leads him to some radical conclusions about linguistic theory.

Theatre review: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

A travelling fair makes its annual trip to a small German town, with a new star attraction: The Somnambulist, in which Dr. Caligari (Oliver Birch) exhibits the seriously ill man he's been "looking after," Cesare (Christopher Doyle,) who suffers from a sleeping sickness but can perform any number of feats in his sleep - including predicting the future. The arrival of the fair coincides with an outburst of strangling, and suspicion falls on jittery Town Hall employee Franzis (Joseph Kloska,) who knew and disliked both victims. Franzis denies committing the murders - or at least, he has no memory of doing so, but increasingly distrusts what is real and what a dream. Sebastian Armesto and Dudley Hinton of Poor Theatre company simple8 adapt and direct the classic German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as part of a residency at the Arcola (next month they present Moby-Dick, and there's reduced-price tickets for booking both shows together.)