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Elephant 21

This event has now finished Until Jul 24 2010 Theatre Local, Unit 215-216, SE1 6TB Full details & map

Theatre: Off-West End

Time Out says Rate it

By Andrzej Lukowski Posted: Mon Jul 19 2010

It's important not to make 'allowances' for community based theatre and certainly 'Elephant 21' - The Mayhem Company's epic tribute to Elephant & Castle - is not without script issues. But Sarah May's play, based upon interviews conducted with several generations of E&C denizens, is an extremely enjoyable piece of writing, while husband Ben May's production is great fun, a lively, visually-accomplished romp in which a huge cast of professional actors and locally-sourced amateurs are virtually indistinguishable.

The story follows the female members of the Valentine family from WWI to the present day; the tone is not unakin to a really, really good episode of EastEnders, crammed with incident, full of people saying things like 'ee's only gone and gassed 'imself!' But it's the detail that counts, and 'Elephant 21' is bursting with rich little anecdotes, while the choreography is excellent, actors constantly bursting out of the audience, some ferociously lively dancefloor scenes, and smart physicality used to indicate the passage of time. It would be stronger if it wrapped up in 1952, where the main plot effectively ends, and the final scene is excruciatingly saccharine. But ultimately it's a hoot, crackling with life, cackling with one liners that'd be sharp in any era.

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