In Lambeth review Blake v Paine in lively imaginary encounter
Southwark Playhouse, LondonIn this well-acted revival, the poet and the philosopher face off in a slow-moving but stimulating debateDid William Blake ever meet Thomas Paine? It is not impossible that the poet and the philosopher crossed paths at weekly dinner parties thrown by the radical publisher Joseph Johnson. But in Jack Shepherd's 90-minute play, first staged in 1989, the two men meet in an imagined encounter t…