Hogarth’s Progress is a riotous double-bill of comedies by BAFTA Award winner Nick Dear, following one of Britain’s most celebrated artists on two monumental pub crawls. The plays explore the extraordinary lives of William and Jane Hogarth at a time when culture escaped from the grasp of the powerful into the hands of the many.
The Olivier Award nominated comedy The Art of Success, in its first major revival, compresses the newlywed William’s rise to fame into a dizzying and hilarious night out through 18th century London’s high society and debauched underworld.
A world première, The Taste of the Town catches up with the Hogarths in Chiswick some 30 years later. Now hugely successful, William and Jane are still at odds with the world and with each other. Facing public ridicule for what he considers his finest painting, William sets out to confront his fiercest critic, but there’s always time for one more pint on the way.
Directed by Anthony Banks, Hogarth’s Progress stars Bryan Dick as the younger William Hogarth and Keith Allen as the older William Hogarth and is at Rose Theatre Kingston 13 September – 21 October 2018.
