After Dark; Or, A Drama of London Life

Details

After losing his wife and daughter to the seductive charm of his fellow army officer Chandos Bellingham, Frank Dalton turns to drink and now lives homeless on the streets of London. Dalton's only daughter Eliza, having lost her mother in the workhouse and with the wicked Bellingham transported to Australia for a felony, is now married to the unprincipled George Medhurst. When Eliza learns her husband intends to abandon her so that he can claim his dual inheritance of both a baronetcy and a fortune, she decides to attempt suicide by jumping into the River Thames, but is saved by a group of tramps - including her own father. As the characters search for meaning and happiness whilst trying to escape the mistakes of their past, Captain Gordon Chumley, recognising Dalton as a former army comrade, agrees to help Eliza... only to fall foul of the villainous Bellingham who ties him across the rails in a tunnel of the (newly built) London Underground just as an oncoming train is approaching. The first production in over 120 years. Written in 1868, the year that the Finborough Theatre's building was constructed, The first London production in over 120 years of Dion Boucicault's rip-roaring Victorian melodrama, After Dark; or, A Drama of London Life, directed by the multi-award-winning Phil Willmott

Cast/Performers

Toby Wynn Davies, Simon De Deney, Steven France, Tom Fyans, Victoria Jeffrey, Gabi King, Jonathan Le Billon, Rosa Lennox, Helen Potter, Jazz Sanders, Kate Stafford, Jamima Watling

Creatives/Company

Author: Dion Boucicault (Based on Les Oiseaux de Proie by Eugene Grange and Adolphe d'Ennery)
Producer: Iona Purvis (for Phil Willmott Company in association with the Finborough Theatre)
Director: Phil Willmott
Design: Hannah Postlethwaite
Costume: Penn O'Gara
Lighting: Zoe Burnham
Sound: Julian Starr