A bit of documentary meta theatre, Lessons for Revolution follows two young men in their exploration of a student protest at LSE decades before, as they work to create a play about it. The story overlays the unrest of the students then with the friction that these two performers experience as residents of the same council, Camden, positioning their frustration and conflict with authority against that of the LSE students.
The play is very talk-ey…..they speak at Sorkin-pace for the duration of the hour, with loads of information coming whip-fast at the audience, in a manner so overwhelming that I can’t say I recall the details to any extent. Overall the script and production aren’t bad, but felt a bit manufactured for a specific audience — it felt like it was made by male-gaze creators, to sell well in Edinburgh (which I believe it did, granting them a Barbican transfer). It didn’t feel like it gave us anything new in this discourse, however, so isn’t one that will stay with me.