Creators: Samuel Rees and Gabriele Uboldi
Part live history lesson, part theatrical experiment, Lessons on Revolution by Samuel Rees and Gabriele Uboldi is an unconventional piece that explores protest, past and present, with wit, insight, and a touch of overhead-projector nostalgia.
More interactive lecture than regular play, the piece is delivered by Rees and Uboldi themselves, who guide the audience through the student protests of 1968 at the London School of Economics. Archive materials, maps, and typed letters are beamed onto a screen via that most analogue of tools – the OHP – as the pair draws lines between historical activism and the crises facing renters and young people today.
The set-up is simple: two performers, one projector, a stack of documents, a lot of questions, and a little audience interaction. At times, it feels like you’re back in a seminar – in the best sense – part of a conversation rather than a passive observer.
Rees and Uboldi are charismatic, often funny, and deeply sincere in their delivery. What the show occasionally lacks in dramatic tension, it makes up for in clarity of purpose and a genuine commitment to exploring how we talk about change. They do a good job of drawing parallels between the world in 1968 and the world we find ourselves in now, in a thought-provoking way that avoids being too preachy.
The content is interesting enough, but it’s the way they deliver it that makes it most watchable – they could swap the event out for any number of others, and it would be just as engaging. Their style of delivery would lend itself very well to an investigative podcast – perhaps something they might consider later down the line.
The space at the Jermyn Street Theatre is perfect for this kind of intimate show, which thrives on its closeness with the audience. It runs for an hour, which is just about right.
Runs until 3 May 2025
