New Musical Redcliffe Tells a True, Tragic Story of Forbidden 18th-Century Love

Redcliffe | Southwark Playhouse Borough until 4th July 2026

A true story of forbidden love, told with courage and extraordinary craft. Redcliffe is new musical theatre at its most important. Do not miss it.

This is new musical theatre doing what it can do at its very best: taking a serious, true story and finding in it something that is not only dramatically powerful, but profoundly human.

Redcliffe (yes, it is a district of Bristol) is a brand new British musical, written by Jordan Luke Gage, who theatre audiences will know from &Juliet and Bonnie & Clyde in the West End. This is his writing debut, and what a debut it is. He has also written the music and lyrics, and he plays the lead. It is set in eighteenth-century England and tells the true story of William Critchard and Richard Arnold: a tale of forbidden love at a time when homosexuality was punishable by death.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot, because it will spoil it. These two men meet, fall in love (one is a sailor, one goes to sea) and then they get found out. What follows is the trial, and the outcome of that. The ending, and what it asks of its audience, is inevitable and devastating.

What Gage has achieved here is remarkable. He hasn’t written a vehicle for himself with a few supporting players behind him. This is a great ensemble piece. Daniel Krikler, who plays Richard (I’ve seen him in The Great Comet and Fiddler on the Roof) is excellent. There is real truth in what he and Gage create together on stage.

What I also love about this production is the way the costumes are handled: they give a suggestion of the period, a suggestion of now, but nowhere until the very last moment is there any attempt to link it to the present day. And then, after the inevitable conclusion, one of the cast quietly tells us that same-sex relationships are still punishable by death in twelve countries today. It is a very, very subtle moment, and it brings everything, every scene you’ve just watched, into a devastating relevance.

As you know, I love new musicals. Some work, some don’t. This one works superbly. It proves, once again, that you can take the most serious of subject matters and make it work as a musical, if you handle it with the sensitivity and skill this production brings. It is beautifully directed.

One note for the director, and it is only a note, because this is otherwise fabulous. I saw the same director’s work on Kiss of the Spider Woman recently, and I noticed the same thing in both shows: an instinct to remove the musical theatre “buttons” (those moments at the end of a number where the orchestra swells and the audience applauds) and then a pulling back from committing to that choice. At the Donmar, I once saw Parade performed with every button removed, and the effect at the end of each act was extraordinary: the audience had been held, held, held, and then released in an explosion of feeling. We hadn’t been clapping the actors. We had been living in the moment. Be brave. Have the courage of your conviction. It would make a remarkable show into something truly extraordinary.

I do hope Redcliffe has a life beyond Southwark Playhouse. I think it deserves one.

EyeOnLondon will be covering more of London’s most powerful new theatre as it opens. For another story of a young man finding himself in an unwelcoming community, our review of Clarkston at the Trafalgar Theatre is also worth a read.

[Image Credits | Pamela Raith]

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