Sunday 17 April, performances at 3pm and 7pm
Sunday 24 April, performances at 3pm and 7pm
(doors open 30 mins before each performance for guests to explore the House)

Following the sell-out success of ‘Playing to the Crowd’ in 2015, multi-media theatre company Palimpsest return to Dr Johnson’s House with a piece that was specially-commissioned to accompany ‘Shakespeare in the 18th century: Johnson, Garrick and friends.’

Circling themes of authoriship and performance, this play explores the combustible relationship between the greatest thinker and the greatest actor in the Age of Enlightenment: Samuel Johnson and David Garrick.

‘Playing to the Crowd’ finds Dr Johnson in his Gough Square Withdrawing Room in 1756. Fresh from the publication of his Dictionary, he is about to embark on his next great project: a critical edition of Shakespeare’s plays. But will Johnson’s rigorous intellectual approach stand up to critcism from the writer, Charlotte Lennox, and 18th-century showman, David Garrick?

Please visit Palimpsest’s website to view the wealth of online material that accompanies ‘Playing to the Crowd.’

Tickets: £25 (includes a drinks reception),
booking required

Palimpsest make extraordinary experiences for extraordinary places through the prism of web design and film, creating a layered world that can be explored online by the audience member in the days that lead up to and follow the main event.

Previous productions include the sell-out world premiere of ‘The Muse’ at Leighton House Museum in 2015, and ‘Hedda’, which completed an extensive tour of London historic houses, including Dr Johnson’s House, in 2014.