By GK Chesterton
Adapted by Jonathan Holloway
Guest Directed by Ben Harrison
Designed by Neil Irish
Music by Philip Pinsky
TOURED SPRING 2001
The Man Who Was Thursday is a surreal thriller set in London at the turn of the century. Chesterton’s spy fantasy is considered by many to be his masterpiece.
The story’s hero, Gabriel Syme, an undercover detective, infiltrates a secret council of revolutionaries, named after the days of the week. The group, led by the terrifying and grotesque ‘Sunday’, is dedicated to the destruction of society. Syme, posing as an anarchist, gets himself voted onto the council as the new ‘Thursday’ and sets out to foil their evil plans and single handedly save his world. On the perilous journey that follows, we encounter farcical events, a twisting plot and a series of dramatic revelations which crank up the tension as the true identities of the council are revealed one-by-one.
Jonathan Holloway 