Lessons on Revolution by Damuel Rees & Gabriele Uboldi. Jermyn Street theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London SW1Y to 3 May 2025. 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.
Photo Credit: Jack Sain.
Lessons on Revolution by Damuel Rees & Gabriele Uboldi. Jermyn Street theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London SW1Y to 3 May 2025.
4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.
“Lessons to learn.”
Theatre takes many forms and this Udone Theatre and Carmen Collective production while as a play it is far from dramatic and as a documentary seems to wander from the point and at times states what is now widely accepted, that empires thrive on exploiting others – something that used to be ignored because the empire boasted of the good it did to lesser lands and its citizens believed the boasts and did not question them – is certainly thought provoking. Cecil Rhodes was once a great Briton as was Warren Hastings and Edward Colston not to mention all those men who made Glasgow rich. Playing themselves, or so it seems, Rees and Uboldi while sharing a flat in Camden in 2024 looked back at what the student activists at the London School of Economics did in 1968 and end up introducing the activists of today to their predecessors. It makes for an interesting journey as they use projected photographs and inveigle members of the audience into reading what some of the people who took part in the protests over the LSE involvement with BP said at the time. It is described as an intergenerational conversation between student activists and there is every reason for having one today as not all that student activists protest about is necessarily what those who protested in 1968 would recognise as something to object to and seek to ban. But battles between students and administrators are in themselves a good thing if only because the status quo must always be questioned or nothing will ever change – things in the past can be wrong if still done today. In other words I could be missing the point, I could be getting every thing wrong and while I was around in 1968 when a thousand LSE students occupied a lecture hall while protesting it really is a forgotten past – or at least something I had not thought about since then until the night I saw this theatre piece of work. But imperialism , exploitation of the weak, the demagogues who would seize whatever they want - think Trump, think Putin and don't stop there - are still active, as indeed is BP, and the need for protest is still there and not just by students at LSE. Lessons on Revolution is only on briefly at Jermyn Street but other venues may opt to show chance come your way to see it do not hesitate to take it. There are lessons to be learned worh learning.
Cast
Samuel Rees
Gabriele Uboldi
Creatives
Ella Dale
Laurel Marks
Rudy Percival
Vivi Wei
