England People Very Nice
a new play by Richard Bean
4 STARS
Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times, The Times, Time Out
‘A giddily enjoyable evening…what could matter more than a play which makes audiences look at themselves, which provokes people, through laughter, into feeling uneasy as they laugh.’ Observer
'A seriously hilarious play, a provocative, swaggering, humane, edgy comedy of immigration, integration and disintegration…Unmissable.’ The Sunday Times
‘Who would think that unsexy subject, waves of immigration into Bethnal Green, could generate as much enjoyable ebullience as it does in Richard Bean’s new play?’ The Times
England People Very Nice is a Travelex £10 Tickets production: almost half the seats for every performance are £10.
A riotous journey through four waves of immigration from the 17th century to today. As the French Huguenots, the Irish, the Jews and the Bangladeshis in turn enter the chaotic world of Bethnal Green, each new influx provokes a surge of violent protest over housing, jobs, religion and culture. And the emerging pattern shows that white flight and anxiety over integration is anything but new.
Fucking Frogs! My grandfather didn’t die in the English Civil War so’s half the population of France could come over here and live off the soup!
Written with scurrilous bravura, Richard Bean’s great sweep of a comedy follows a pair of star-crossed lovers amid cutters’ mobs, Papists, Jewish anarchists and radical Islamists across four tempestuous centuries.
Irish and Jewish, that’s the worst mix. You end up with a family of pissed up burglars run by a clever accountant.
- Visit the dedicated England People Very Nice website to explore the interactive time line.
Watch Sky Arts video as they go behind the scene to meet the playwright Richard, the cast and creative team.
- Richard Bean speaks about the inspiration behind his funny and provocative new play. 'I spent some sleepless nights in the four years I lived in Bethnal Green. An immigrant to London myself, a Yorkshireman...' Read full article.
Read The Guardian interview with Richard Bean.
The programme for England People Very Nice is available to buy from the NT Bookshop, the Olivier Bookstall and ushers at performance times, priced at £3. Programme vouchers are now availalbe to buy online. Click on programme notes to read an extract from the programme.
England People Very Nice finished on: 9 August 2009
