The White Bear kicks off its Christmas season with a darkly comic play about lost love, alcoholism and stage fright.
Stanley, once a respected classical actor, is now relegated to appearing in murder mysteries on seaside piers. Found by a former lover who persuades him to appear as Gloucester in her production of King Lear, he is catapulted into the company of his estranged TV star friend who is playing the king himself.
Simon Bradbury’s hilarious and touching play is about the masks we wear and the dangers of wearing them all the time – how refusing to look at our real reflection, warts and all, can cost us dearly when it comes to identifying love and what is truly meaningful. And how having the courage to accept friendship, both platonic and romantic, is essential to all of us.
Using the backstage world and the eccentrics that inhabit it, the play fuses broad comedy with genuine pathos to render a story that is both funny and heart-wrenching. This three hander includes Bradbury in the cast and also features Heide Yates, a Canadian singer/actress making her UK debut, and Aran Bell, a veteran of theatre and stage.
November 29th 2017 – December 16th 2017
Tuesday – Saturday, 7.30pm
Saturday matinees at 2.30pm
Sunday matinees at 4pm
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