A Bunch of Amateurs

Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard but a sleepy Suffolk village – and instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save the theatre from developers. Jefferson’s monstrous ego, vanity and insecurity are tested to the limit by the enthusiastic am-dram thespians. As acting worlds collide and Jefferson’s career implodes, he discovers some truths about himself along with his inner Lear.

This terrific comedy, written by Ian Hislop (Have I Got News For You) and Nick Newman (Spitting Image) is “packed with killer comic dialogue” (Whatsonstage) and is “deliciously stuffed with Shakespeare…a laugh a minute” (Mail on Sunday).