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Gifts from The Morning Star
A production that misses the mark on many levels
Political tirades, prophetic end-of-world visions, broad, sit-com style humour and trite caricatures do not blend, writes SIMON PARSONS
SPECTACULAR STORM: Owen McDonnell (Pete) in Manor [Manuel Harlan]

Manor
Lyttelton Theatre

MIX together an insolvent, forthright lady of the manor, a drugged-up former pop star, a blind anti-feminist revisionist historian, a supposedly charismatic far-right leader, a hypochondriac slob, a radical black working-class student and her would-be detective, medically trained mother and throw in a dash of aged vicar in underpants and pink fluffy jumper and you might expect a revival of the Carry On tradition.

Put all these ingredients in a physically skewed Restoration manor house on the point of being washed away in a storm of biblical proportions and throw in a dead body and a pinch of ghostly sound effects for seasoning and expectations might slide towards gothic horror or political allegory.

Moira Buffini’s play is none of these.

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