Films So Good

We might not present many stage plays, but when two exceptional actors are starring in it, we used to make a special reference. Jenna Coleman joins forces with Aidan Turner in Sam Steiner’s debut play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons in early 2023. The play received great acclaim when it was first staged at Warwick Arts Centre in 2015,

Coleman has starred in several TV series such as “Doctor Who”, “”The Serpent” and “The Sandman”; she appeared also on stage in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” at the Old Vic in 2019. Turner, best known for playing Captain Poldark and Kili in “Hobbit” trilogy, starred earlier this year as a psychologist in ITV’s “The Suspect”; he appeared in a 2018 West End production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Josie Rourke directs, with design by Robert Jones, associate costume design by Kinnetia Isidore, lighting design by Aideen Malone, and movement by Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster.

Plot

The Lemons play explores the importance of our words, and how what we choose to say can have great meaning. Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner lives in a world where people are restricted to a daily limit of 140 words each. Press material states “You’re going to speak more than 123 million words in your lifetime. What will you do when they run out?”

The play shows the impact on one couple of a “hush law” imposed by the government. “As sheer theatre, the central idea is a dazzler,” says Rourke. “Here is a world in which you’re restricted to 140 words a day. You see these two characters before and after that word count restriction is in place. Are they a better or stronger couple with more words?”. Rourke also suggests that the impact of such a “hush law” on daily life and “the restriction that places on discussing the big stuff” makes the play “profoundly funny, dangerous and moving”.

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is at the Harold Pinter theatre, London, from 18 January to 18 March. It then runs at Manchester Opera House (21-25 March) and Theatre Royal Brighton (28 March-1 April).

Watch the promo video below:

Photo credit: Lemons cast (Photo courtesy of production)

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