Roberto Bolano on London theatre
Sunday 12th July 2009
One of my sad delights is seeing how British theatre is represented in novels and other media. You must be joking, grins Pirate Dog: stop right now and let’s go to the park! For example, there’s a great little advert for the Royal Court as a venue for in-yer-face theatre buried deep in Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday (2005). And recently, I came across this ironic description of a London theatre comedy show in Roberto Bolano’s epic masterpiece 2666: “He concluded that the play hadn’t been so bad after all, it had been good, he had laughed, the actors were good, the seats comfortable, the price of the tickets not too high.” Could this really be the London theatre we know and love? Hum, well it is fiction, after all.
© Aleks Sierz
