Romeo is wrinkly and rheumatic; Juliet dissimulates her fading charms thanks to an understanding stage-manager and a lighting tech well versed in the use of shadow. Who has not dreamed of playing the ingenue for ever? The stage itself is a theatre of illusion. But when, just hours before curtain-up, reality begins to take over where illusion left off, the world turns upside-down. Revelations and confrontations strain the precarious balance of this theatre company whose ageing leading lights must carry the can. Terence Rattigan’s Harlequinade Continue reading →