Shakespeare Globe

The Frontline

by Ché Walker

Production now closed

Love of life

2009 Reviews

***** 'Ché Walker's terrific modern play... His language captures the contemporary demotic, but is elevated with Renaissance rhetorical flair... What elevates this above panto schtick is the quality of the kooky characterisation... This life-affirming show celebrates our common humanity' Time Out

**** 'Ché Walker's snapshot of inner-city life is greatly entertaining. It fizzes with life and has a heart so big and soppy you want to hug it. Watching it you feel just as a 17th-century theatre-goer might have felt going to the Globe when every play was a new one rather than a classic, and the world reflected back to you from the stage was often one recognisable from everyday life. The Frontline is a cracking celebration of London, played by a cast who own every word. It's what the Globe is for' The Guardian

'The Frontline is the best attempt so far to find a modern theatrical vernacular that suits the Globe and a great London play. The Frontline is a big, messy, carnival with a compassionate heart, a celebration of London and the resilience of its underclass. I really liked it' Evening Standard

'In evoking the the flavour of a diverse multi-cultural underbelly, Walker delivers and this colourful production knows how to work the open-air crowd. The audience is with them all the way' Daily Express

God, strip bars, weed, crack, lost old men, unemployed actors and vegans all collide in a riptide of chaos on the streets of London. Ché Walker brings back to the Globe stage his 2008 panorama of contemporary London, encompassing the cruel and the tender, the gutter and the stars.

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