Written by Francis Beaumont Performed in Russian with surtitles Running time 1 hour 40 minutes, no interval Premiered in 2019
In this 2019 production, Cheek by Jowl and Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre reunited to present Francis Beaumont’s subversive and darkly funny play within a play. The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a breath-taking comedy, hilarious and terrifying in its relevance to a post-expert world where everyone can be famous and anyone can write the story.
‘The London Merchant’ begins, a thoughtful drama about dysfunctional families. But suddenly, from the audience, a grocer and his wife clamber onto the stage and politely explain to the astonished actors that they are a little bit bored and wouldn’t it be better to cheer the evening up with exotic locations and a Knight – indeed their apprentice grocer Rafe is just the man for the job.
Rafe is duly arrayed as the Knight of the Burning Pestle and his chivalric adventures are played out while the domestic drama of the London Merchant struggles towards its conclusion, chronically interrupted by the grocer and his wife who surprisingly get highly involved with its gritty, unpredictable narrative.
Beaumont’s subversive meta-drama burst onto the stage in 1607, at a critical moment when theatre was threatened by a popular movement increasingly hostile to art and culture. A disturbing comedy centuries ahead of its time, it subtly asks questions all the more relevant today: what is art for? Who is art for?
Produced by Cheek by Jowl and Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre in a co-production with the Barbican, London; Les Gémeaux/Sceaux/Scène Nationale; Centro Dramático Nacional, Madrid (INAEM).
Agrippina Steklova and Alexander Feklistov. Photograph: Andrey ParfyonovDanila Kazakov and Anna Karmakova. Photograph: Johan Persson.Sergei Miller. Photograph: Johan Persson.Kirill Sbitnev. Photograph: Johan Persson.Kirill Chernyshenko. Photograph: Johan Persson.Nazar Safonov. Photograph: Johan Persson.The Company. Photograph: Johan Persson.Kirill Chernyshenko and Anna Vardevanian. Photograph: Johan Persson.Sergei Miller, Kirill Chernyshenko, Anna Vardevanian and Alexei Rakhmanov. Photograph: Johan Persson.Agrippina Steklova. Photograph: Johan Persson.The Company. Photograph: Johan Persson.
