Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog

I couldn’t resist this. King Lear with sheep. Real sheep. In costume. In a theatre. In Hoxton. It was either going to be a great idea or a dreadful idea. It turned out to be neither.

The director kills time waiting for his cast, apologising for their late arrival. Seven sheep eventually come on stage, in costume, and he protests that they are refusing to perform. He thinks Cordelia is the leader of the revolt. Almost as soon as they arrive there’s real wee, then real poo. King Lear is obvious because of his gold crown and ermine cape – and a rather aloof manner, I thought. Eventually, the director decides to do the heath scene alone, hugging Cordelia at one point (she seems to enjoy this). Around thirty minutes after it started, it’s over.

Well, it did what it said on the can. It’s a novelty and in that sense it delivers. It’s a clever and original idea and it sold out. The biggest problem was the sight lines, performed in a pen on the floor with the audience struggling to see the sheep. I felt the period where the director was waiting for the cast went on too long, though if it hadn’t it wouldn’t have got to thirty minutes!

The director is played by Alasdair Saksena, who doesn’t have a biography in the programme, unlike the sheep who have been in seven films and TV shows from Disney’s Cinderella through The Apprentice to Good Morning Britain. Anise and Snowdrop have also appeared in a commercial with Piers Morgan; no doubt his finest hour, though probably not theirs.

From the programme we learn that they are three breeds –  Shetland, Whitefaced Woodland and Suffolk (one Suffolk cross) – and normally reside in Vauxhall City Farm. We were also given advice about staying safe around sheep, which included not taking drinks out, washing hands after the show and calling a doctor if we get diarrhoea within two weeks. Watch this space!