SOLD OUT- Rotten Perfect has now sold out. Don't miss out on our summer theatre programme including Into the Breach and As You Like It.

The Lyceum Theatre in 1890s London. Actor Manager Henry Irving is doing everything he can to keep his theatre up and running performing only the classics, and keep his star actress, the famous Ellen Terry, from leaving for good. (Local history buffs will know she was briefly married to GF Watts.)  Will she be lured away by the new scripts of Ibsen (touted by the influential Bernard Shaw) and seek new roles elsewhere? And behind the scenes is the costume designer, Alice Comyns Carr, attempting to create that famous beetle-wing dress for Lady Macbeth, and the young actor Sedgwick who tries too hard to get it right. It's all 'rotten perfect' in this delightful new script regarding the famous theatrical partnership during a time of great change in the London theatres.

Written by: Claire Parker
Directed by: Kate Napier

Presented by LynchPin Productions

About the venue:
Nestled within the walls of a Victorian Courthouse, our intimate venue offers a personal and immersive journey, allowing you to connect deeply with the stories unfolding before you. The close proximity to the stage ensures that every emotion, every nuance, is felt with an intensity that lingers long after the final curtain falls.

Our fully licensed bar, offers a selection of drinks, before and after the performance. The warm ambience of the bar area provides the perfect space for pre-show mingling and post-show reflections.

Event Details:

  • Doors and Bar Open - 7pm
  • Performance starts - 7.30pm
  • Fully licensed bar is open before, during and after the production

Claire Parker - Playwright

In 2022 Claire directed the OFFIE-nominated production of Apples in Winter (Playground Theatre, London). Her career began as a child performer in the West End in the musical Annie and as Liesl in The Sound of Music. She worked extensively as an actress on stage and screen including a season at the National Theatre. Leading and supporting roles include The Magistrate, A Collier’s Friday Night, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Paris Match, The Hired Man, A Slice of Saturday Night. TV: Babs in Connie; Julia in The Knights of God; Gladys Moon in Boogie Outlaws and guest appearances including Robin of Sherwood, The Refuge, Pulaski and The Bill. Claire moved to France where she raised a family, ran a dance school, worked as a voice artist, and with cultural organisations, publishing and writing plays. On her return to the UK, Claire began collaborating with LynchPin as a performer, writer and director. Her play Rotten Perfect was produced at the Watts Gallery, Compton, in 2017; When the Cat’s Away toured in the southeast of England in 2018; and Claire directed the UK Premiere of Amelia at the Electric Theatre, Guildford, in 2019.

Directed by Kate Napier
Kate trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. She worked for many years at Guildford School of Acting as tutor, director & Head of Curriculum and Post Graduate Studies, leaving to pursue her own theatre-making. While at GSA she gained a PhD in Theatre from Royal Holloway University of London, and the idea for Artifice: Classical Plays in Beautiful Places emerged from a practice as research contribution to an academic conference at Chawton House. Acting credits include Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, A Winter’s Tale and School for Scandal. Directing credits include The Beau Defeated, Art, Antigone, The Sisterhood and The House of Bernarda Alba, as well as all Artifice productions. She was also a regular reader and director of LynchPin’s ScripTease readings from 2009-2019.