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Theatre

Absolute Hell, National Theatre review ★★★★★

18 Apr 18 – 16 Jun 18, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Maverick director Joe Hill-Gibbins revives scandalous black comedy Absolute Hell, over 50 years since it shocked and horrified the masses


By Lucy Brooks on 26/4/2018

16 CW readers are interested
Aaron Heffernan and Kate Fleetwood: Absolute Hell, National Theatre review
Aaron Heffernan and Kate Fleetwood: Absolute Hell, National Theatre review
Absolute Hell, National Theatre review 3 Absolute Hell, National Theatre review Naomi Barker
Often the daunting thing about sobriety isn’t one’s own abstemiousness, but the prospect of suffering everyone else’s inebriation. This is essentially the audience experience in Joe Hill-Gibbins’ revival of Absolute Hell, as we spend three hours amidst the revelry and bleak escapism of a Soho drinking den.


Branded 'a libel on the British people' when first performed in 1952 under the title The Pink Room, Rodney Ackland’s play was panned and as good as booed off stage. Set in war-rattled London, in seedy members’ club Vie en Rose, the play presents a cast of denigrates who revel in excess and immorality.


The combination of blunt political blows, homosexuality and gleeful inhibition was more than enough to alienate and alarm 1950s society.


In the 1980s after censorship laws were abolished, the Ackland re-worked the script, keeping all the shock factor and adding references to pompous literary critics. Absolute Hell, as it was re-titled, premiered at Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre in 1988. By this stage Ackland was dying of cancer, so he never saw the show adapted for the BBC or staged at the National Theatre with Judi Dench starring.




Ensemble cast of Absolute Hell, National Theatre. Photo by Johan Persson

Now, under the dynamic direction of Joe Hill-Gibbins, Absolute Hell brings a rowdy ensemble of 28 actors and an excess of scotch bottles to the Lyttelton stage. It’s staged with an artist’s eye for detail and a large budget. A vertiginous set show us us both private dining room above and sleazy drinking den below. Beyond a typist busies herself with Labour Party campaigning. Intermittently a sex walker silent stalks across the stage.


Kate Fleetwood is brilliantly brittle as proprietor Christine, who eekes out each night to its dregs for fear of being left alone. And Charles Edwards is at once sympathetic and exasperating as sensitive writer Hugh.


Every nook and cranny of the stage is swilling with half-seen stories and this sense of excess is at once the most compelling and exhausting aspect of the production. Over a tonally monotonous three hours it’s hard to care for the the motley crew of degenerates and we found ourselves craving a few cuts and some sharper focus.


As the play ends, inevitably, not with a bang but with a whimper, we get a glimpse of the raw desperation beneath the rose-tinted revelry. The raucous humour and dulling reality makes Absolute Hell a strangely sobering experience. We recommend watching with a stiff drink, or three.


by Lucy Brooks

What Absolute Hell, National Theatre review
Where National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX | MAP
Nearest tube Waterloo (underground)
When 18 Apr 18 – 16 Jun 18, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Price £15 - £67
Website Click here to book via the National Theatre



Free for Members
Aaron Heffernan and Kate Fleetwood: Absolute Hell, National Theatre review
Booking closed
13 of June 2018

Absolute Hell, National Theatre

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  • Green Room

    A great place to eat or relax, the Nation Theatre's Green Room is enclosed in a sustainable garden, which acts as an urban oasis amid the hustle and bustle of the Southbank. The Green Room is open from noon until midnight from Monday-Saturday, and until 10pm on Sundays.

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