Epsom Downs

by Howard Brenton

Commissioned and first performed by the Joint Stock Theatre Company in August 1977, Howard Brenton's Epsom Downs takes place on Derby Day in Silver Jubilee Year. In the words of The Times critic, Irving Wardle, the play explores 'a great public festival, held on common land and pulling in punters of every degree from the Aga Khan to the homeless family who are camping out in a Dormobile. Half a dozen threads of plot are woven in and out of a teeming Brueghel-like composition, vying with jubilee chicken and Kermit Frog salesmen and other genre detail, warring bookies and allegorical figures speaking for Epsom itself.' All in all, Epsom Downs is 'a marvel of expressive economy.

88 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Oliver Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Political and a clumsy commentary on the Class System wrapped up in nonsense excused by a punk-like attitude.

1977 was an important year in Britain just as much as 2012.

Maybe they'll be a 2012 equivalent to this- not difficult to top it either!