The Dresser

the dresser

By Ronald Harwood

Directed by Lindsay Dale

An amateur production by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd

Ronald Harwood’s ‘The Dresser’ harks back to a bygone era in theatre.  While bombs rain down on Britain, Sir, the last of the great, but dying, breed of English actor-managers, is in a very bad way.  As his dresser, Norman, tries valiantly to prepare him to go on stage as King Lear, Sir is having great difficulty remembering who and where he is, let alone Lear’s lines.  Sir is, in fact, experiencing a Lear-like existential crisis, involving dashing his clothes down in a rainy street and frequent explosions of crying.  There are passages of quick-fire retorts that  crackle with wit and multiple strands of genuine pathos that underwrite the humour with complexity and many opportunities to poke fun at the world of theatre. ‘…a play immersed in the real-life guts and greasepaint that go into keeping a show on the road.’  London Theatre ‘…one of the finest and funniest plays ever written about the theatre.’   The Telegraph

Cast

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