From Revolutionary Idealism To Mob Rule

Tuesday, October 14 2008 @ 11:50 AM BST

Author: Dan

Chichester Festival Theatre will stage Liberty � a play set in the French Revolution � fresh from its world premiere at Shakespeare�s Globe Theatre.

Liberty will be the first Globe main stage production to tour the UK. Set in Paris, 1793 when the French Revolution is four years old, ambitious young artist, Gamelin discovers he has been made a magistrate for the ruling forces. Gamelin believes the Revolution divides the world between good and evil, and he sees conspiracy and corruption everywhere. How strong will the ties of love and friendship prove when he is given power over life and death, as the new order plunges with terrifying momentum from high idealism to bloody mob rule?

The play tells the story of how a group of friends are pulled apart by mass hysteria, and how idealism is corrupted and degraded by fear within a violent state dictatorship. Private jealousies and public fears, old alliances and new ideologies, panic legislation and political correctness all combine in a play whose themes are as relevant to contemporary British society as to the French Revolution. Liberty is an adaptation of Anatole France�s 1912 novel Les Dieux ont Soif.

Writer Glyn Maxwell is an award winning poet, playwright and novelist. He brings a colloquial verse of great fluidity and immediacy to a story that is both fresh and relevant. His play Lifeblood was voted best play by the British Theatre Guide in 2004 and led the producer, Sue Scott Davison to create Lifeblood Theatre Company which champions new writing.

The Liberty cast includes Belinda Lang and David Sturzaker, and Liberty is directed by Guy Retallack. The production is designed by Ti Green, with music by William Lyons - one of the UK�s leading early music specialists and a founder member of acclaimed early music ensemble, The Dufay Collective.

Liberty is at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester on Tuesday 11 � Saturday 15  November at 7.45pm

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