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Review: The School for Scandal @ Barbican

But I bear no malice against the people I abuse: when I say an ill natured thing, ‘tis out of pure good humor; and I take it for granted they deal exactly in the same manner with me.

Bit of binge drinking - Picture by Neil Libbert

Have you heard the one about the "athlete" who had an affair with that woman off the telly and now he is suing Twitter because he didn't want people to know but everyone is talking about it on there? Well, I can't really tell you about it, yeah, cause of the super injunction thingy but I bet it's going to end up all over the papers anyway like what happen to that banker, Goodwin, yeah. That super injunction thing rather backfired for him, innit? Anyway, you'll never guess, on Friday evening I went to see that play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It's called The School for Scandal or something. It's quite famous, I think. And I heard that that bloke Sheridan he had to fight a dual (twice! imagine...) because a journalist had dished some dirt about his girl. You wouldn't catch me doing that! Anyway, that play, yeah. It's all about those rich bitchy people in funny clothes, like. They spend their time gossiping and dissing people but they kinda get unmasked in the end. Nothing too original, if I am honest. Sometimes they are dressed in normal clothes though or they use mobile phones and they used those cool tunes between the scenes to make it look less naff, I suppose. That old play is we, you know. Not easy to make it seem alive. OMG! and they even do some charlie on stage! I kinda liked it though, you know. The set was quite funky too. You could see lots of backstage and stuff and it was kinda like only suggesting things rather than a full-on theatre set you normally get for that type of classic plays. Oh and there is those people off the telly in it. There is that woman from the IT Crowd, yes, the ginger one. She plays the young wife that kinda get sucked in into that world. There is one from Harry Potter but he's only got a smallish part. There is the guy from Garrow's Law (he is supposed to be the good guy but you know: when it's too good to be true, it probably isn't!) and there's this guy who plays the rich uncle that I have seen in plenty of things but I can't remember where. He normally plays a baddy, I think. They've even got Ian from the Archers! You wonder what they are doing in a play, like. I mean come on! they were on the telly! They were all really good but that's pretty normal since they are all professional actors, you know.

Anyway, if you fancy seeing it, it's on at the Barbican until the 18th June.

This review was originally written for Londonist on 20 May 2011, following the guideline that we should try and be original. However this was deemed likely to confused the readers and wasn't published in the end. You can read the second version of this review (totally different tone) on Londonist, here.

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