Come and join Vas and myself at the Progress Theatre in Reading on Saturday 3 February 2024 to see Albion by Mike Bartlett. The play starts at 7.45pm.

The play is a retelling of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard for current times, set in the previously grand gardens of a large English country estate. This is the backdrop for and focus of the lives one family across several seasons.

Matriarch Audrey plans to return the gardens to their former glory, finding her passion and distract herself from the death of her son, a soldier. She’s dragged her overly laidback husband and London-raised, writer-aspiring daughter Zara with her. Her son's grieving girlfriend of only three months has also tagged along as they decide what to do with his ashes, and she wears her grief like a mantle.

They clash about what to do with his ashes, the hiring of help and what the gardens should be used for, with locals from the village bringing their own agenda.

The garden changes, the rains come and people and places have to adapt or break.

Following a sell-out run in 2017, The Telegraph’s "Play of the Year" returned to the Almeida for just 31 performances in 2020 before COVID hit.

You will need to book your own tickets https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/progresstheatre/e-vqjlmp. These can be booked online. Adult Tickets £15.52. Concessions £12.42. These prices include a booking fee.

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