Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) coming to The Drum

Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) is a one-man staging of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost combining theatre, comedy and movement.  Written by Lost Dog’s Artistic Director Ben Duke and co-directed by Ben with Lucy Morrison, Associate Director to the Royal Court, this is an often witty, sometimes acerbic, always observational journey through the story of the creation of everything condensed into 75 minutes.

This unique show is coming to Theatre Royal Plymouth, in The Drum, from 23 – 26 October 2024.

Originally performed – many times – by Ben Duke all over the UK to the delight of packed audiences and critics alike, this new production stars actor Sharif Afifi whose theatrical credits range from The Band’s Visit at Donmar Warehouse to My Fair Lady at the Coliseum, to the smash hit film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!.

Paradise Lost begins with Lucifer’s rebellion and ends with Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden of Eden.  With a lot of business in between.  Sharif Afifi plays all the characters and creates all the scenes.

“It’s a show for anyone who has created anything (child, garden, paper aeroplane) and then watched it spiral out of control,” says Ben Duke, “I’ve been performing Paradise Lost on and off for nearly ten years and I felt the best way to make the show feel new is to hand it on.

I’m absolutely delighted to hand it onto Sharif Afifi who’s from a theatre background –

although he did dance when he was younger.  Often at Lost Dog we work with crossover performers in the dance world; for this project we made a conscious choice to step into the similar, yet entirely different, world of theatre.

“Lucy Morrison and I met when Lucy was organising a festival at the Almeida Theatre and she programmed a Lost Dog piece called ‘It Needs Horses’.  We then worked together on ‘Like Rabbits’ with the brilliant playwright, Lucy Kirkwood.  In terms of working together as co-directors I’m hoping Lucy will do all the hard stuff and I’ll stand up every now and then to help Sharif with the movement!”