Southwark Fair

In Samuel Adamson’s Southwark Fair, past misdemeanours bear down on the present when Patrick calls up one lover with another in mind. When his wife discovers what he’s up to, she pursues his discarded date through the maelstrom of the South Bank, where a Bird Whistler flogs his wares, a trainee barista primes himself for his wedding, and an elderly actress stalks the Deputy Mayor of London.

Unexpectedly connected by time and place, a tangle of lost souls fight, fall in love and lay their private fears bare in this extraordinary, evocative, metropolitan comedy. Nicholas Hytner directs.