Plague Over England

Nicholas De Jongh’s theatrical writing debut comes to the West End after a run on the fringe last year, and it is a fine, thought-provoking piece of work. A look at attitudes to homosexuality during the 1950s, the play uses John Gielgud’s arrest for cottaging as a prism to see how the authorities dealt with the “moral plague” and how this affected the lives of a series of gay men. The set design is extraordinarily versatile with numerous changes throughout the play, evoking a vast range of different locations quite effectively and this is superbly bolstered by some fine ensemble acting, with many actors also doubling up.


I neglected to purchase a programme, so cannot name the actor who played the policeman, and this is meant to be a serious blog, but he is possessed of quite a fine set of abs. There was a collective gasp of appreciation when they were unveiled, almost enough to make me want to join a gym, but not quite! I mention the abs only because they featured in the best scene of the play with the pontificating of the railing homophobic Home Secretary counterpointed with the first coupling of the mis-matched copper and judge’s son. It is a wittily played vignette, my only caveat would be that it is only the young hunky members of the cast who seem to get it on, which slightly undermines the universality of the play in general.

There were a couple of hiccups with one of the main revolves which always seemed to happen when Celia Imrie was on stage. She very gamely shoved it round into place several times, but every time it happened I got a fierce attack of the giggles as it very much channelled the spirit of Acorn Antiques. Hopefully this will have been sorted out in time for the opening night, as this was a very enjoyable and entertaining piece of theatre, which I would highly recommend.

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