Out of Joint Presents: A Dish of Tea With Dr Johnson

Irritable, generous, seriously depressed yet a great wit: meet Samuel Johnson – poet, essayist and lexicographer. This evening of stories and conversation brings to life some of the most colourful figures of the eighteenth century.The host of characters bringing detail to this fascinating portrait includes biographer James Boswell, painter Joshua Reynolds, King George III, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s saviour Lady Flora MacDonald, and Mrs Thrale, the society hostess whowas Johnson’s final, unrequited love.

‘With A Dish of Tea with Dr Johnson we return to the fascinating world of the great Dr Johnson. Until the middle of the 19th Century only the two patent houses, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, were permitted to present drama. So when Samuel Foote, Johnson’s contemporary, presented his evening of comic impersonations and vignettes it was billed as An Invitation to a Dish of Chocolate with Samuel Foote. From him we have purloined our title.’ - Max Stafford-Clark