Botticelli in the Fire

Description

They're going to kill you. They're going to worship you, don't get me wrong. But they are going to kill you. Florence, circa 1482. Playboy Sandro Botticelli, brilliant, famous, good looking, has the ear - and the wife - of Lorenzo de Medici, as well as the Renaissance's hottest young apprentice, Leonardo. But whilst he is at work on his breakthrough commission, 'The Birth of Venus', Botticelli's devotion to pleasure and beauty is put to the ultimate test. As plague and dissent sweep through the city, the charismatic friar Girolamo Savonarola stokes the fires against the liberal elite. Botticelli finds the life he knows breaking apart, forcing him to choose between love and survival. Jordan Tannahill's hot-blooded and seductive reimagining of Renaissance Italy questions how much of ourselves we are willing to sacrifice when society comes off the rails. Botticelli in the Fire has its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2019.