Theatre of Blood

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Play
Closed 10 September 2005

Lyttelton Theatre (National Theatre)
South Bank, London

A stage adaptation of the stylish 70s horror movie Theatre of Blood - it is the story of an actor who takes bloody revenge for a lifetime of bad reviews by murdering theatre critics in a series of Shakespearean deaths.

Seven self-regarding critics assemble at a disused theatre in response to a mysterious invitation. Too late they discover its gruesome purpose as Edward Lionheart, an actor frenzied by a lifetime of sneering reviews, hacks his revengeful way through the bloody works of Shakespeare, assisted by a gang of murderous tramps.

Theatre of Blood is based on the cult 1970's MGM/Sam Jaffe/Harbor Productions film, from an idea by Stanley Mann and John Kohn, with the screenplay by Anthony Greville Bell. This stage version is adapted by Lee Simpson and Phelim McDermott by special arrangement with MGM on Stage and is presented as a collaboration between the National Theatre and Improbable Theatre.

Theatre of Blood is recommended for 14 years and up.

Performance schedule:
Evenings at 7.30pm: Mon 22, Fri 26, Sat 27, Mon 29 August 2005, Fri 2, Sat 3, Mon 5, Tue 6, Wed 7, Thu 8, Fri 9 and Sat 10 September 2005
Matinees at 2.15pm: Sat 27 August 2005, Sat 3, Thu 8 and Sat 10 September 2005.

"Theatre of Blood is terrific fun" The Daily Mail

"Some of you will remember the 1973 MGM mock-horror film in which a grand ham actor entraps London's leading theatre critics and brutally murders them one by one. Shock horror, mock horror, what's wrong with a thesp who kills his critics? Lee Simpson and Phelim McDermott’s play is inspired by, based on and makes fun of this movie... The murders are spectacularly gory... Broadbent is archly and brilliantly funny, though the acting style he's so expertly and lovingly sending up was dead 50 years ago, dead as earth. More interesting is the way he rants and roars about people wanting to have a National Theatre. In this building, it is a case of mocking the meat you feed on." The Sunday Times

"Part of the pleasure of the production comes from the fun it takes in turning up the temperature on the ghoulish camp comedy" The Independent

"This giddily enjoyable remake of the 1973 horror movie, which starred Vincent Price... is, like most of the wonderful work of Improbable, a fantastic construct, a blast across the bows of the stage... It's a one-joke play, and it's over-extended: but then a critic would say that, wouldn't she? You get a lot of enjoyment along the way - and a lot of exquisite in-theatre references... Rachael Stirling is distinguished in the difficult romantic role. Jim Broadbent is flexible, extraordinary and ever-changing as the old ham." The Observer

"Phelim McDermott's production is often biliously funny, and the graphic death scenes are an ingenious and gory delight. Rarely can so many pints of stage blood have splattered the scenery, and the schlock horrors just keep on coming... The cast is clearly having a ball" The Daily Telegraph

"Obviously, I'd love to write a rave but, with my heart in my mouth, it has to be said this show is largely a flop. It is all too often feeble and dull, partly because it remains stuck in the Seventies and has not been satirically updated. The film itself was hit-and-miss, and this adaptation by Lee Simpson and director Phelim McDermott is patchy in its dialogue and its plot developments. On the positive side, the designer Rae Smith has constructed a magnificently dilapidated mini-Victorian theatre within the modernist frame of the Lyttelton." The Independent on Sunday