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Those Magnificent Men
Published on Wednesday, 15 June 2011
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preview

Udderbelly's Pasture (venue website)
Theatre
3-16, 18-29 Aug, 1:15pm-2:30pm

 Parental Guidance. Parents or guardians should consider the content of this show if children are attending.

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They flew the Atlantic eight years before Lindbergh – and, knighted on the spot by King George V, became the Boy’s Own heroes of their day.  But history’s neglected aviation pioneers John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown.  In its own small way, this comic two-hander promises to right that wrong… telling the story of their historic flight, and delivering an archly tongue-in-cheek nod towards the very nature of fame.

If we sound – to quote the song – frightfully keen, that’s much to the credit of writers Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon, whose plays we’ve caught a few times in their native Brighton.  They’ve a knack for finding an attention-grabbing setting, then using it as the backdrop for something much subtler; so for all the excitement of Alcock and Brown’s story, we’re sure this show will prove more than just a spiffing yarn.

They have a knack, too, of writing scripts which travel well, and Those Magnificent Men have already spent a fair while on tour.  In Newbury, The Stage praised the feelgood factor of a “sympathetic but comic memoir”, while The Times (no less) deemed it had “the makings of a West End hit”.  We’ve no idea if that particular childhood dream will come true – but it’s got to be worth hopping on board its flight to Edinburgh, for a play we expect to put a witty but poignant spin on these overlooked flying pioneers.

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