Brighton’s newest theatre – the Rialto – is preparing for the revival of an affectionate play about hangdog comedian Tony Hancock.
The play stars the Rialto’s artistic director Mark Brailsford, known for directing and appearing in the Treason Show, Brighton’s long-running satirical take on the latest news and current affairs.
The Hancock play, called The Lad Himself, won rave reviews at Edinburgh in 2012. Writer and comedian Barry Cryer, 80, said: “Mark Brailsford IS Tony Hancock.”
The premise is that, after his death, Hancock finds himself in a familiar limbo, the waiting room from his famous sketch The Blood Donor.
Brailsford said: “Yet again, he is confronted by the same officialdom, red tape, pomposity and bureaucracy in the afterlife that drove him mad in life.”
The show runs from Tuesday 26 May to Saturday 30 May at the Rialto, in Dyke Road, Brighton, with tickets costing from £8 to £12.50.
