THE ENTERTAINER

Following the success of his play, Look Back in Anger, celebrated 20th century playwright John Osborne continued to examine the state of the country in this play, The Entertainer. To mark its 50th anniversary, Robert Lindsay plays struggling comedian Archie Rice, a music-hall performer in an age when music halls had all but disappeared. Driven by dreams of stardom and a desperation to equal his father's success, Archie finds himself a man out of his time - a selfish, deceitful has-been, headlining a tacky revue in a rundown seaside town. Family tensions rise to a boil as he shamelessly cheats on his wife and tricks his dying father into financing one last revue. But throughout it all, Archie jigs and jabbers before his ever-diminishing audience and does whatever it takes to keep the show going.