A lawyer called Standard... good name! (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

A lawyer called Standard... good name!

RED Shift Theatre Company presents Bartleby at the Sundial Theatre at Cirencester College on Thursday, February 12 at 8pm.

The scene is Wall Street in the 1850s and Standard, a successful lawyer, runs his thriving business according to the liberal idea which mark him out as a progressive.

One day, Bartleby, a scrivener by trade, arrives seeking a position. He is offered a job within the company and immediately impresses everyone with his diligence and hard work. Bartleby works with sober efficiency until one day he finds he can do so no longer. With passive desperation, he rebels. His quietly spoken, "I would prefer not to," is his stand against the inhumane reality of society.

The uneasy equlibrium of an office populated by entertaining eccentrics is soon upset as Bartleby moves from being a figure of scorn to a hated interloper. His posture of free will is profoundly threatening to organised society.

This production is a thought provoking and strikingly theatrical mix of knockabout comedy and moral urgency, a poignant parable of the human condition.

Tickets from the box office on 01285 654 228 or via boxoffice@cirencester.ac.uk