Samuel Johnson's reputation as an upstanding and principled man is brought into playful question in Charles Thomas' play, which is set in 1838 when Johnson was a struggling young writer. Johnson had struck up a close but unlikely friendship with another writer - Richard Savage. The two were very different, Johnson was profoundly, even morbidly, puritanical, Savage reckless and of dubious morals. Both however were poor, Savage extremely so, to the extent that they sometimes were reduced to walking the streets of London at night. Boswell, in his biography of Johnson, considers that on at least one such occasion Johnson strayed from the path of virtue. Memories of this lapse tormented him into his old age. No real record of the night in question exists although there is much speculation. Perhaps it is significant that Johnson's own version of Savage's life contains very little mention of their friendship at all. Charles Thomas' play presents a reconstruction of one such night in Madam Meg's brothel and largely uses Johnson's own words recorded by Boswell.| 20 Dec 00 to 14 Jan 01 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) Inner London, Greater London Performance Details => Venue archive |
