Alterations: 'riveting' 1970s tailoring comedy is a lot of fun

'Retro gem' from the National Theatre's Black Plays Archive 'springs into life' from the start

Arinzé Kene in Alterations.
Arinzé Kene as the tailor: an 'anti-hero unlovably married to his job'
(Image credit: Marc Brenner)

"If there is an afterlife", then the late Michael Abbensetts must be "looking down from it in delighted surprise", said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. The Guyana-born playwright, who settled in London in the early 1960s, became known in the late 1970s for the black-led TV drama "Empire Road", which aired on the BBC. Around the same time, he wrote "Alterations", a "bittersweet" drama about a Windrush-era immigrant who is desperate to own his own tailoring shop on Carnaby Street. It premiered at a London fringe venue in 1978.

Now, it's being given its first revival in 40 years – on the National Theatre's vast Lyttelton stage, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. "Alterations" turns out to be a thought-provoking play, even if it lacks the depth and intricacy of a truly great one, and it really "springs to life" in Lynette Linton's warm and finely acted production.

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