Dillon's solo shows

STUNNING THE PUNTERS
by Steven Berkoff, Robert Sproat & Fyodor Dostoevsky
directed by Laurence Boswell

Three stories of imagination run wild! An out-of-work actor's frustration explodes over breakfast in Steven Berkoff's Master of Cafe Society, an ex-skinhead tells a tale with a ghostly twist in the title story by Glaswegian writer, Robert Sproat, and a would-be suicide dreams of paradise in Dillon's own adaptation of The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Stunning the Punters is a breathtakingly arrogant name to give to a show; it is also entirely accurate.
THE INDEPENDENT

JUDGEMENT
by Barry Collins

An epic monologue (three hours with no interval) telling a true story of murder and cannibalism... During the Second World War seven soviet officers were imprisoned in the cellar of a hilltop monastery in Poland.  Sixty days later only two were rescued.  They had survived by killing and eating their comrades.  The two crazed men were fed and then shot.  But what if one of them had been sane enough to describe and defend his actions... 

George Dillon's performance as the 'normal' cannibal, retelling and defending his actions before his judges, has been hailed by the author as quite unlike any other for its uncompromising intensity. Although not listed in the programme, Judgement was a hit at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival and toured the UK in Spring 1992.

If you want to enjoy some unforgettable and brilliant acting, go and see Judgement. Dillon is undoubtedly one of the best actors I've ever seen perform on the Fringe. EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS

Dillon's mesmerising performance as one of the cannibalistic officers should sweep the proliferating Fringe awards. THE OBSERVER

George Dillon, as Vukhov, gives a virtuoso performance of awesome intensity. His portrayal of the terror, irony, tenderness, and even humour, of Vukhov's awful; history transfixes the audience for nearly three hours. It is a red-raw theatrical experience of rare depth and power. THE SCOTSMAN

Hell & Other Tales
by Steven Berkoff

Three savagely funny & highly intimate stories of loneliness by the maverick genius of British theatre, Steven Berkoff, performed by his acclaimed protege, George Dillon. An actor takes stock of his world in The Secret of Capitalism, both sides of a sordid brief encounter between failed actor Harry and Doris the cleaner are exposed in Say a Prayer for Me, and finally the abandoned and heart-broken speaker pleads for some sympathy and company in Hell, a stark and chilling glimpse of the anatomy of despair.

Say a Prayer for Me & Hell was a hit at the 1992 Edinburgh Festival and on tour in Spring 1993.  In August 1993, The Secret of Capitalism made up the trilogy at the Gate Theatre in London.

Steven Berkoff's close collaborator and ardent disciple, George Dillon, demonstrates, not for the first time, his sensitive and intelligent understanding of his mentor's work in this provocative performance of two fiercely contrasting Berkoff short stories.  And in the process, Dillon also powerfully reminds us of the technical control, range and intensity that mark him out as one of the most distinctive and challenging solo performers around. Dillon combines the precision and timing of the practised story-teller with the physical expressiveness of the accomplished actor, to expose a rich mixture of humour, anger, futility and human sadness. He immerses himself in his material and suffers.  Dillon brings measured delivery, carefully stylised visual imagery and above all the degree of physical and emotional vulnerability needed to translate powerful prose into disturbing, dangerous theatre.
THE GUARDIAN

The Remembrance Of Edgar Allan Poe
by George Dillon/Edgar A Poe

The life and soul of the arch priest of Gothic horror, and the revelation of a love that lives beyond the grave. Compiled entirely from Poe's short stories, poems, essays and letters, The Remembrance Of Edgar Allan Poe reveals how the Master of the Macabre drew on the tragedies in his own life to create unforgettable works of beauty, mystery and imagination.  From the early battles with his adoptive father, John Allan, and the big-nosed comedy of Lionizing, though the horror of his young wife's sickness and the teeth-pulling obsession of Berenice, to the final years of mourning and The Raven's famous haunting refrain of "Nevermore!", Dillon has woven a dream-like tribute to a life of undying hope, passion, poverty, disease and drunkenness.  

During the 1993 Spring tour of Say a Prayer for Me & Hell, Dillon previewed and shaped his tribute to Poe under the working title A Never-Ending Remembrance.  The final version was acclaimed at the 1993 Edinburgh Festival.

In this brilliant monologue Dillon's performance is astonishingly versatile, a tour de force, driving together the passions, concerns and torments of this monomaniac genius with a determination and vigour that is exhausting to watch, let alone perform.
THE SCOTSMAN

Forthcoming Vital Theatre Dates: