Written in 1868, the year that the Finborough Theatre’s building was constructed, The first London production in over 120 years of Dion Boucicault’s rip-roaring Victorian melodrama, After Dark; or, A Drama of London Life, directed by the multi-award-winning Phil Willmott, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Wednesday, 12 June 2019.
The spectacular West End hit of late Victorian London, and unseen since, Dion Boucicault’s sweeping melodrama, involving train crashes, river rescues, dastardly villains, plucky heroines, salacious scandal and dark secrets, crackles with the energy of a London of fresh peril and opportunity.
The cast comprises, Toby Wynn-Davis, Simon De Deney, Steven France, Tom Fyans, Victoria Jeffrey, Gabi King, Jonathan Le Billion, Rosa Lennox, Helen potter, Jazz Sanders, Kate Stafford and Jemima Watling.
The new underground railway is a thing of wonder, the early Salvation Army shines a light on the grinding poverty of the East End, and high and low-lifes frequent gambling dens and revel in the illicit sex of the music halls.
All the while Scotland Yard struggle to police increasingly sophisticated financial fraud and marauding bands of ex-soldiers lately discharged into destitution and a life of crime. Can love and honour prevail in such a world?
Last seen on stage in London in 1896 and filmed twice in both the UK and Hollywood in 1915, After Dark; or, A Drama of London Life is a classic Victorian melodrama by Dion Boucicault, one of the greatest theatrical figures of the 19th century, but is also startlingly contemporary with its thrilling climax on the London Underground, and its sympathetic portrayal of London’s homeless community.
