23 Dec Camelot in the Guardian’s top ten theatre of 2015

Camelot: The Shining City
Sheffield Crucible

For this ambitious and enthralling collaboration between the Slung Low company, the Crucible and Sheffield People’s Theatre, dramatist James Phillips adapted the Arthurian legend to a contemporary setting in which a rebel leader uses social media to foment a revolution. The first part ended with the Crucible “burning down”, and the audience being escorted outside, where the cast and 150 local extras carried the narrative into two different parts of the city. Turning out to be impressively prophetic of the anti-establishment anger that would drive Corbyn’s outsider landslide in the Labour leadership election just two months later, the production was a masterclass in how a theatre can engage with its community and stands as a highlight of the repertoire that has just won Sheffield artistic director Daniel Evans the job of running the Chichester Festival theatre.

By Mark Lawson