Too wordy and worthy?
The music is good, but a new musical about the Gunpowder Plot lacks direction, says Ferdie Rous.
In Treason, we have another musical about a struggle for freedom. After Les Mis nearly 40 years on and the global phenomenon that is Hamilton, it’s fair to say that making a song and dance about fighting tyranny is a pretty safe box office bet. Unlike these two fore-runners, it is written from the losing side of history.
And it really leans into the tragedy of the failure of its protagonists through Guy Fawkes, who is narrator, judge and victim of what turns out to be a very political parable. Gabriel Akamo plays this warrior-conspirator with as much gravity as the script allows him. Wandering through every scene, he holds court about the inevitability of his fate and the need to remember this grave image of tyranny unpunished.
