The King and I – Edinburgh Playhouse
A show originally performed in 1956, It would be easy to write this off as old, irrelevant, dull, an anachronism, a three-hour yawn fest? How wrong you would be! It is the very opposite on all counts and has to be one of the most opulent and lavish and thoroughly entertaining touring productions I have ever seen at The Edinburgh Playhouse. Not only that, it also has themes which are extremely relevant and pertinent to our times. At its centre, the role of women, particularly in Asian society and the tensions between East and West, which are probably even more extreme and concerning now than they ever were when this was written.
Anna Leonowens, played brilliantly by Annalene Beechey, is the headstrong school mistress travelling to Bangkok in Siam (now Thailand) to teach the King’s (Bria...