The plot thickens in this green and pleasant land
The cast of Mike Bartlett’s new play, Albion, have developed green fingers.
Director Rupert Goold, staging his second consecutive Almeida Theatre hit following James Graham’s Ink (currently packing them in at the Duke of York’s in the West end), has his company — led by a luminous Victoria hamilton (pictured left) as a controlling businesswoman and mother — plant beds of choisya and dahlias, as well as mixed foliage: cotinus, sedum, geum and osmanthus.
I was very impressed, though Goold joked it will get a bit tricky if they use plants out of season. ‘It will be noticed,’ he predicted. Goold and Bartlett (who wrote the Doctor Foster TV series) last worked together on King Charles III.
Their new effort explores why we go mad over gardens; and why a country house and its surrounding land — and one particular plot — mean so much to hamilton’s prickly Audrey Walters.
People will probably pin a Brexit label on Albion. And to be sure, it is about our country. But my sense is it’s over and above that subject.
hamilton leads a super ensemble that includes Charlotte hope, helen Schlesinger, Luke Thallon, Christopher Fairbank, Margot Leicester and Nicholas Rowe.