What's On in London

Mr McClellan - himself a seasoned pro - has put together a highly competent company who gave this overlooked piece a sensibly direct and to-the-point rendering, cracking through the odd bits of slack in the text and providing moments of power and pathos where they're due.  This is an impressive piece of ensemble playing. 

Time Out

With a toga'd and espadrilled cast, Sharers and Hirelings Theatre Company give us a credible impression of a lot of people treading very carefully on account of the whims of a despotic ruler... We have an Italianate and curiously compelling Caesar in George Savvides, spoilt, tempramental and relishing torture as if it were light entertainment.  In fact, the striking thing about this play is the way in which it confuses make believe with reality in an elaborate use of plays within plays.  Savvides' whimsical Caesar really doesn't seem to know or care about the diference between murder on or off stage. 

The Guardian
Rosalind Carne

If you're looking for action, look no further than this tiny pub theatre in Chiswick where the Sharers and Hirelings Company have launched a gutsy revival of Philip Massinger's bloody malediction of imperial tyranny... Intimately presented using two painted walls and a couple of benches, the production passes the fundamental test of creating its own world on stage. 

The Guardian
Edward Pearce

On Sunday I saw the fringe theatre at its best: Kenneth McClellan's production of The Roman Actor by Massinger. Anyone keen on strong coherent plotting and fluent nervous blank verse from one of the most highly competent of Jacobean playwrights should seek out the tiny theatre above the charming Tabard pub next to Turnham Green underground station, where they will see something with more than 17th Century relevance.  The excellent performaces of George Savvides, the twitchily unhinged Emperor Domitian, Nadia Cameron, his avid and beautiful empress and the delicious, medium-dry camp of Rob Horton, the court favourite (a sort of unreliable Cecil Parkinson, on girls and off points), also contribute nicely to the eternal bloodiness of politics.