When Winston Went to War with the Wireless (NHB Modern Plays)

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Haydn was due to appear in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Gielgud Theatre in London, however was forced to withdraw at short notice due to ill health. Enter two titans of their respective spheres, two professionals in their absolute element and two men who spawned adjectives that endure to this day.

Reith was autocratic and hugely tall, but Campbell Moore portrays him as small and haunted despite his messianic self-belief. Yet nothing takes away from the propulsion of an evening driven not by mooning romance but by danger – in a tumultuous twilight.

It started with impact, I loved the live foley on stage throughout and the performances were strong, but at multiple points I found my mind wandering and the play dragging. Or, on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, might it vaguely reference disgraced former PM Blair . Stephen Campbell Moore as John Reith and Adrian Scarborough as Churchill in When Winston Went to War With the Wireless at the Donmar. Lizzi Gee’s driving choreography punches home in the same direction as Rob Howell’s design, with its gaudy palette and skewed perspectives: as if echoing the size of his self-esteem, our hero’s tousled room is studded with miniature illuminated houses, clinging to its walls like limpets. On stage her other recent credits include appearing in Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre in London, and in Copenhagen at the Theatre Royal Bath.

We find John Reith at the helm of the British Broadcasting Company – not yet a corporation but on its way to becoming so.And Kitty Archer (her enunciation as evocative of an era as her name would suggest lol), Laura Rogers, Shubham Saraf and Mariam Haque are all terrific in smaller roles, in a cast that is spoiled for rich talent in small parts. As Kitty Archer’s narrator – brightly of the period, though burdened with too much straight-to-the-audience recapitulation – explains, sound invades and betrays: a mic can catch the tiniest crack in a voice and a tale. Undoubtedly, the 1926 general strike was the making of the nascent corporation – but was it also its finest hour? But Thorne also fascinatingly explores deeper questions of personal morality and hubris within two deeply arrogant men.

He is neither hero nor villain, not problematic in itself, but we do not feel we know him by the end. Watch: Jack Thorne talks When Winston Went to War with the Wireless; Rehearsal photos released Acclaimed playwright Jack Thorne has talked about his new play at the Donmar Warehouse - When Winston Went to War with the Wireless. It was a tiny startup, staffed by a group of young war veterans, misfits, impresarios, intellectuals and engineers. com gave the play four stars out of five, describing it as a "fleet and fluid production" and highlighting the performances of Campbell-Moore, Scarborough and Archer.It should be noted that half way through the interval, a quartet of actors, led by a mischievous Kevin McMonagle, rousingly perform such a variety skit, for those not queuing for the bathroom, in it's entirety. Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news, events, offers and partner promotions.