Bohemia and Victorian respectability collide when the vivacious star of the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rose Trelawney, attempts to swap backstage life for the suffocating household of her formidable prospective father-in law, Sir William Gower Q.C. Any hopes they have of living harmoniously are dashed when the pompous judge discovers Rose’s old friends paying her a riotous midnight visit and the pair are soon locked in a hilarious battle to change the other.

Arthur Wing Pinero’s gloriously life affirming comedy perfectly captures the ups and downs, glamour and hardship of life in the Victorian Theatre and has at its centre two wonderfully comic characters whose celebrated clashes prelude Shaw’s Pygmalion – as well as modern theatre’s first “angry young man”, Tom Wrench, a thinly disguised portrait of Tom Robertson, the creator of naturalistic drama, who has written a new style of play about ordinary people which nobody wants to produce! Pinero based events on his own theatrical apprenticeship in the 1860’s with the Bancrofts (buried next door to the Finborough Theatre in Brompton Cemetery)

With its large cast and sweeping story, this passionate celebration of theatre’s magic is a suitably ambitious production with which to celebrate 25 years of the Finborough Theatre.

Sir Arthur Pinero (1855-1934) abandoned law to take up acting as a career, acting with the Bancrofts and for Henry Irving. His 34 plays include such classics as The Magistrate, Dandy Dick, The Second Mrs Tanqueray ,The Gay Lord Quex and The Schoolmistress.

Phil Willmott is Artistic Director of The Steam Industry who have managed the Finborough Theatre since 1994. Throughout the 1990’s, as the theatre’s in house producers, they created some of that decades most ambitious and popular fringe productions, introducing writers such as Mark Ravenhill, David Eldridge, Anthony Neilson and Naomi Wallace and staging audaciously ambitious classics like Crime and Punishment, the Grapes of Wrath and the BAC Christmas musicals. More recently Steam Industry productions have included Agamemnon, Androcles and the Lion, Oedipus, and The London Nativity at The Scoop amphitheatre on The South Bank and Willmott has also recently directed the 2004 company of Fame at the Aldwych Theatre, Around the World in Eighty Days at Liverpool Playhouse and on tour, Master Harold… and the boys at Liverpool Everyman, Rent in Dublin, Pal Joey at Nottingham Playhouse, Kiss of The Spiderman and Britain’s first large stage production of Angels in America at Sheffield Crucible. Willmott now returns to the Finborough for the first time since his sell-out production of The Grapes of Wrath in 2000.

The Press on Trelawny of the 'Wells'

THIS TRIUMPHANT REVIVAL . . .TOTAL DELIGHT . . .
A PRODUCTION BURSTING WITH THEATRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND LARGER THAN LIFE DICKENSIAN CHARACTERS
Carole Woddis, Whats On in London

ONE OF THE STRONGEST FEEL GOOD FACTORS AVAILABLE IN LONDON . . . ITS A JOY TO BEHOLD.
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds

THIS ENTHRALLING PRODUCTION
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine

AN EXUBERANT CELEBRATION OF THE IRREPRESSIBLE URGE TO MAKE THEATRE.
Michael Portillo, The New Statesman

FOR ITS SILVER JUBILEE PRODUCTION THE FINBOROUGH THEATRE HAS RESURRECTED AND RE-EXAMINED PINEROS DELICIOUS LITTLE MELODRAMA, GIVING IT NEW LIFE WITHOUT LOSING ITS INHERENT MORAL THREAD.
Paul Vale, The Stage

IF ITS ABSURD TO BRING SUCH A BIG THEATRE TO LIFE ON SUCH A SMALL STAGE, THEN SUCCEEDING WITH OUTRAGEOUSLY UNMANAGEABLE CHALLENGES IS WHERE THE FINBOROUGH EXCELS. ITS SMALL SPACE, NOT SMALL-SCALE.
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

LARA AGAR-STOBY
VIVACIOUS
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine
DELIGHTFUL
Mike Parker, The Morning Star
GLITTERS AS THE IRREPRESSIBLE ROSE
Paul Vale, The Stage
BEAUTIFULLY JUDGED PERFORMANCE
Carole Woddis, Whats On in London
EXCELLENT . . .HOLDS OUR ATTENTION AND SYMPATHY THROUGH EVERY STAGE OF HER JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY
Michael Portillo, The New Statesman

JAMES HORNE. . . WONDERFUL . . . WATCHING THE SCENE . . . AS HE RECALLS FROM CHILDHOOD HIS OWN, FORGOTTEN LOVE OF THEATRE IS QUITE ENCHANTING.
Paul Vale, The Stage

THERE IS PLENTY OF DRAMA AND TOMFOOLERY, PROVIDED BY A LIVELY SUPPORTING CAST, PARTICULARLY TIMOTHY DODD AS THE ROMANTIC TRAGEDIAN FERDINAND GADD AND HELEN MARIE WEAVER AS THE CHEEKY AVONIA BUNN.
Paul Vale, The Stage

BRIAN E COOK IS QUITE WONDERFUL
Paul Vale, The Stage

BRIAN E COOK IS DELICIOUSLY, EFFORTLESSLY FUNNY
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds

THESE ACTOR-MANAGERS DELIGHTFULLY ENCAPSULATED BY BRIAN E COOK AND URSULA MOHAN
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

ALEXANDRA AITKEN
ENCHANTS AS THE SELF-OBSESSED STARLET IMOGEN PARROT
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine
A STRONG PERFORMANCE IN A PIVOTAL PART
Michael Portillo, The New Statesman

JACQUELINE WILDER IS ENCHANTING
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds

TIMOTHY DODD. . .GETS A PEACH OF A ROLE AS THE WELLSS RESIDENT HAM AUGUSTUS GADD, PROCLAIMING SONOROUSLY IN JUICY ALAN RICKMAN FASHION THROUGHOUT, WHILE HELEN MARIE WEAVER IS EQUALLY GOOD AS GADDS SPRITELY COCKNEY WIFE AVONIA.
Mike Parker, The Morning Star

GORGEOUSLY LARGER-THAN-LIFE
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CREDIT AND RESPECT TO NEIL McPHERSON, THE FINBOROUGHS CURRENT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, AS WELL AS TO PHIL WILLMOTT, FOR NURTURING THIS CRUCIBLE OF INVENTION AND DELIGHT.
Julia Hickman, Theatreworld Internet Magazine

PHIL WILLMOTT (PROPRIETOR AND DIRECTOR) AND NEIL McPHERSON (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) TOOK A RISKY DECISION TO PUT ON A SENTIMENTAL, CONVENTIONALLY CONSTRUCTED VICTORIAN PLAY REQUIRING A CAST OF TWELVE TO PORTRAY BIG THEATRICAL PERSONALITIES IN A TINY FRINGE SPACE — AND ITS PAID OFF BRILLIANTLY.
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds

THE FINBOROUGH IS DOING A GOOD JOB OF REVIVING WHERE OTHERS FEAR TO TREAD AND THIS PRODUCTION HAS THE COMMENDABLE PHIL WILLMOTT AT THE HELM, STEERING A TWELVE-STRONG CAST AROUND ITS TINY STAGE.
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

A QUARTER-CENTURYS THEATRE-MAKING UPSTAIRS AT THE FINBOROUGH PUB IS CELEBRATED WITH MAGNIFICENT AMBITION IN THIS RARE REVIVAL
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

ARTHUR PINEROS LOVE-LETTER TO THEATRE
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

ALEX MARKERS INGENIOUSLY FLEXIBLE SET
Timothy Ramsden, Reviewsgate.com

ALEX MARKERS DESIGN…DESERVES TO WIN AWARDS. IT EFFORTLESSLY TRANSFORMS FROM STAGE TO DRAWING ROOM AND THEN WINGS. THE COSTUMES TOO ARE SPECTACULAR…
Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide

ALEX MARKER HAS WORKED WONDERS WITH HIS DESIGN
Paul Vale, The Stage

A CHIEF SOURCE OF DELIGHT IN WATCHING THIS TRELAWNY ARE ALEX MARKERS PRETTY, COLOURFUL SETS AND RESOURCEFUL USE OF THE OLD PUB ROOM TO CONJURE UP VICTORIANA ON A SPACE NOT MUCH BIGGER THAN A TOY THEATRE.
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds

STAGE SETS AT THE FINBOROUGH ARE A MINOR MIRACLE, AND THE DESIGNER, ALEX MARKER, HAS SHOWN GREAT INGENUITY.
Michael Portillo, The New Statesman

WILLMOTT LOVES THEATRE IN ALL ITS VARIEGATED FORMS AND NOTHING COULD EXEMPLIFY IT BETTER THAN THIS PRODUCTION – MARKING FINBOROUGHS 25TH ANNIVERSARY AND WILLMOTTS TEN-YEAR ASSOCIATION WITH THEM – EXUDING WARMTH AND GREASE-PAINT TACKINESS IN EQUAL MEASURE.
Carole Woddis, Whats On in London

VIGOROUS AND SPARKY . . .IT SQUEEZES FROM ARTHUR WING PINEROS 1898 PERIOD PIECE EVERY DROP THAT IT HAS TO OFFER.
Michael Portillo, The New Statesman

WE SHOULDNT BE SURPRISED IF, REMINDED OF PINEROS POWER TO CHARM, A COMMERCIAL OR SUBSIDISED MANAGEMENT DECIDES TRELAWNY IS WORTH AN EARLY 21ST CENTURY REVIVAL IN A BIG, STARRY PRODUCTION, BUT WE WILL REMEMBER THAT THE FINBOROUGH DID IT FIRST.
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds