I was lucky enough to spend a few days in London last week, with my boyfriend Ben. Being the theatre-obsessed gays we are, we naturally managed to squeeze three shows into two days.
The first of these was Allegiance at the Charing Cross Theatre. After a run in Broadway in 2015-16, the show has transferred to London for a limited run, with its original star – Star Trek‘s George Takei – returning to his role.
The theatre itself was interesting, located under the railway arches on the approach to Charing Cross station – the play was punctuated by the rumbling of trains over our heads at regular intervals. The seating was arranged in an almost ‘in-the-round’ layout, with the audience either side of the stage. We actually had to walk across the set to reach our seats.
Allegiance recalls the tale of the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent who, upon the outbreak of war between the USA and Japan, were rounded up and forcibly relocated to internment camps. The show centres on the Kimura family, who are uprooted from a happy life on a Californian farm to be interned alongside many others in dusty rural Wyoming. Conditions in the camp are severe, with poor food, no medicine and military discipline.