Hugh Massingberd
This Green Plot
The Park: The Story of the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park
By David Conville
Oberon Books 144pp £15 order from our bookshop
At a low ebb last summer between chemotherapy sessions, I was dozing underneath a mulberry tree in Regent’s Park when, as if in a dream, I heard the magical sound of a fruity voice warbling ‘It’s Never Too Late to Fall in Love’, with orchestral accompaniment, wafting towards my deck-chair. On investigation through the undergrowth, I discovered that the voice belonged to Ian Talbot, artistic director of the New Shakespeare Company (which runs the Open Air Theatre), rehearsing the role of Lord Brockhurst for his own production of Sandy Wilson’s musical comedy The Boy Friend.
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