Mr Loverman tickets

Fall in love with Mr Loverman, Natasha Gordon’s tender stage adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo’s acclaimed novel about love and a secret that was kept for 60 years, at the National Theatre. Book Mr Loverman tickets on London Theatre.

Mr Loverman is a play that focuses on Barrington Walker, also known as Barry, who appears to have built a life for himself that anyone might envy. He is charming and sharply dressed, and deeply rooted in his Hackney community. He is a husband, father, grandfather, and a man who knows exactly how the world wants him to present himself.

But Barry has spent the last 60 years hiding an enormous part of himself. Since their youth in Antigua, he has been in love with his best friend Morris, and the two have carried on a secret relationship for most of Barry’s adult life and marriage.

After decades of balancing the life he is presenting to his family and the one he shares privately only with Morris, Barry is beginning to confront the possibility that he may finally decide to be honest with himself and the world. Doing so, though, would mean reckoning with the people he loves and the hurt that his secrecy has caused.

Danny Sapani stars as Barry opposite Gary Beadle as Morris, with Jo Martin as Barry’s wife Carmel. The ensemble also includes Gabrielle Brooks, Llewella Gideon, Terique Jarrett, Jenny Jules, and Suzette Llewellyn.

Natasha Gordon adapts Bernardine Evaristo’s novel for Mr Loverman in London, with Paulette Randall MBE directing. Tim Hatley is on set and costume design, Tim Lutkin is the lighting designer, Carolyn Downing is on sound design, and Cynthia De La Rosa designs the wigs, hair, and make-up.

This production spans six decades from Antigua to contemporary London, and it is about the endurance of love and the importance of family in spite of all of the complexities involved. Freedom may come at a high cost.