REVIEW: THE Legacy of William Ireland at The Bridge House Theatre 10 – 21 Feb 2026
“This is not just your typical one-man show” ★★★½
He might be a fraud, freak and a victim of his father’s shadow but if Willliam Ireland is to die, he will perish whilst writing. Production Company Stage D’Or reinvents a little-known historical event in literary history into a script spinning with whimsical flair and wit. We cringe at William’s self-obsession, watch his occasional puppetry of other characters with a smile and roll our eyes at the pretentiousness so common to the 18th century period.
Acclaimed writer Tim Connery, now a household name at The Bridge House Theatre in Penge West, provides us with a corker of a script. It’s 1796 and an obsessive father, Samuel Ireland, desires with his supposed last breaths to have a document in Shakespeare’s “own hand”. This compels his son, William Ireland, into a dubious quest to prove he can make a facsimile of the bard’s work. The said fraudulent play named Vortigern and Rowena is placed into the hands of none other than the owner of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and chaos quickly ensues.
The performance fits nicely into the current obsession with the authorship of Shakespeare’s whole body of work. The play laughs at the snobbery surrounding Shakespeare and makes a nuanced discussion about our infatuation with the composition of his work, without making it feel like a university lecture or GCSE classroom.
This is not just your typical one-man show. Will Croft playing Ireland keeps the show on legs with plenty of aristocratic scurrying round the stage, hands at hilarious angles to his side and feet always ready to leap up upon a writing table. It’s a farewell to the static, still life in the one-man show form that has been favoured by directors or writers of the last 10 years and this take is certainly refreshing.
The tech department is called up to action on the regular and it admirably does its part to give the show that extra bit of verve. Expect a smoke machine, smart and sharp lighting changes and even an original soundtrack by Liam Connery that creates a strong thematic link between different parts of the story. The costuming is as effective as it is simple, and the show makes the most of a flamboyant purple overcoat that is worn by Ireland.
The show is worth the short stroll from Penge West station for just over an hour of laughs, suppressed giggles and Ireland’s maniacal grins. More has been written about Shakespeare, less of small writers who have little now to do with the English canon like Ireland and this play works with these intentions to some considerable success.
The Legacy of William Ireland
Bridge House Theatre, Penge
10 – 21 February 2025
BOX OFFICE https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/shows/william-ireland/
