Pentecost

Pentecost has been the most widely produced of the three plays in David Edgar’s forthcoming trilogy. This might be because it is the only one to consider political questions indirectly, from the oblique perspective of Art History. The plot involves the contested discovery of a ground-breaking piece of art on the roof in a dusty old church.
Crucially this building is also the site of a hostage situation in a post-Communist East European country, and this setting forms the crux of the Iron Curtain plays, brought to us by American Theatre Company, Burning Coal. Winning awards on its first production in 1994, the writing has since been criticised for weaving together too many different themes and threads.
But we’re particularly excited by this central work in the trilogy. The setting of an abandoned church could provoke some atmospheric staging, whilst the premise of a hostage situation is unavoidably dramatic. If Burning Coal hold true to their aim of producing ‘visceral, affecting theatre’, then this could be a gripping evening.