Knowledge Workings Theater Company

Tag: pubtheatre

Stream RETROSPECTIVE and #maketheaterlive
Some of our audience members showing how much they enjoyed RETROSPECTIVE in pub theatre

Maybe you already know this as someone who supports theater, but London’s pub theatre experience is unique. We found that out first hand this past May as Knowledge Workings Theater in collaboration with Mon Sans Productions produced the UK premiere of RETROSPECTIVE by T.J. Elliott . And thanks to award-winning filmmaker Louis Catliff, you can share that experience by watching a recording of our May 16th performance at Barons Court Theater .(Blessings on Leo Bacica who brought us to West Kensington.) Just click her e to revel in some fanciful fun.

When you click on that link her e and are asked to make a minor donation of your choosing to access the RETROSPECTIVE performance, know that you’re supporting making theater live. All proceeds received through this video presentation are split equally among our team of seven people: actors, director, playwright, and tech guru. And while you’re basking deservedly in the warmth of the goodness of your support, you’ll also get to feel what we experienced every night at the theater: audiences bringing powerful energy, a space inviting intimacy, and a nearby bar with alcoholic and non alcoholic encouragement for all concerned. OK, you can’t see the bar upstairs from our theater in the video, but the picture at the top of us with some of our audience at the Curtains Up pub gives an idea of the merriment that ensues.

A Typical Crowd at Curtains Up

So click on this link of our video of RETROSPECTIVE on the Ko-fi platform, you’ll enjoy the way in which Director Liviu Monsted dazzlingly brings to life this comedy about a famous painter, Rory McGrory, — who may or may not be dreaming — encountering his first wife and other hilariously haunting figures from his past amidst what they claim is a retrospective of his work. This mischievous ménage swear they just want to help him ’get to next ’ but Rory just wants to wake up from this dream.

Click here to get to the filmed version of RETROSPECTIVE

Our theatergoers loved the story as presented so brilliantly by actors Noah Huntley, Sarah Louise Pearcy, Jasmine Dorothy Haefner, and Benjamin Parsons. Take a few secs to watch this clip of comments about the performance from audience members. And look below to see what reviewers had to say about RETROSPECTIVE: One critic actually called the play ‘thoroughly lovable’ and we haven’t been called that maybe… ever?!?

And while a retrospective implies looking back, we are looking forward to hearing what you think of this play. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram. And if you want to help us further, please forward this e-mail do your own friends and family. Then just click on the link, pour a pint of whatever suits you, and let London pub theatre play in your home. Thanks again for helping to #maketheaterlive

P.S. You can also follow the writing of T.J. Elliott on his Substacks at these links – Testing: A Personal History and Chasing the Dead: Amateur Adventures in Genealogy

Gratefully,

Knowledge Workings Theater

Photos by Marjorie Phillips Elliott
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September 9, 2026
RETROSPECTIVE by T.J. Elliott: Bringing the text to life
The actors’ art and the director’s craft combine in the rehearsal rooms to make theatre live

[Read London Pub Theatre magazine’s interviews here with Playwright T.J. Elliott and Director Liviu Monsted on the making of the play and more]

The question puzzling famous painter, Rory McGrory, in Retrospective is ‘Asleep or Afterlife? Rory, who may or may not be dreaming, encounters his first wife and two other frenemies from his past amidst what they claim is a show of his work, a retrospective, but all Rory can see are blank canvases. This mischievous menage claim they just want to help him get to next while he just wants to wake up. Which will it be In this rollicking reunion — a wild dream to recount or going down for the count?

That’s the world our company is busy creating in London at Barons Court Theatre. The photos offer a glimpse into their work but only attending live May-14th – 23 will convey the magic being mixed by Noah Huntley, Sarah Pearcy, Jasmine Dorothy Haefner, and Benjamin Parsons directed by Liviu Monsted

Buy Your Tix Now Here

Select the performance to attend here
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April 29, 2026
We also asked these fine actors why they care & commit to #maketheaterlive
April 15, 2026

Part II

Lucky to have this pair making theater live in the UK premiere of RETROSPECTIVE

Here’s what our Jasmine Dorothy Haefner(Z) & Benjamin Parsons(Clint Belinsky) said

How lucky are we to have in the cast for our upcoming UK production of RETROSPECTIVE, friends and colleagues, old and new, who want to make theatre live. Jasmine Dorothy Haefner who plays Z, an acerbic critic, in this magical mystery tour of a comedy first worked with KWT in 2020. Here’s why Jasmine makes theatre:

Why make theatre? Because it’s fun!

We only met Benjamin Parsons at casting for this production, and yet already feel we have gained a stalwart companion and kindred spirit as he becomes Clint Belinsky, the rogue painter and laid-back lover in RETROSPECTIVE’s ‘menage a quatre‘. Here’s his thoughtful take on why making theatre matters to him:

Benji like many of us in theatre is there for the storytelling

In our previous post featuring the other half of this quirky quartet, Noah Huntley and Sarah Pearcy, we shared how the pandemic’s shuttering of theaters stirred our commitment at Knowledge Workings Theater company to #maketheatrelive. We needed that rush of creation and power of performance even if the work went into pixels before it got to people. Felicitously, many theatre artists joined that cause first in our Zoom productions Grudges in that crazy Spring of 2020 followed that autumn by Within The Context Of No Context by George W S Trow, and the Swedish screwball comedy, Keeping Right.

Happily and gratefully, thanks to a co-production with the pioneering and innovative Broom Street Theater in Madison WI in November 2021, we got back to making theater on an actual stage with our third play, Genealogy before a live, laughing, sighing, and physically present right before us audience . This ‘making’ then continued through our Off-Broadway productions of The Oracle (2022) at THEATRE FOR THE NEW CITY, The Jester’s Wife (2023) at The Chain Theatre, HONOR (2024) at Gene Frankel Theatre, and now Retrospective, which debuted at the Broadway Bound Theatre festival at the AMT Theatre on West 45th St. in Manhattan August 2025.

Now UK theater lovers can enjoy Jasmine and Benji along with Sarah and Noah in the shadowy bantering world of RETROSPECTIVE at Barons Court Theatre May 14-23 by clicking on the button below

TICKETS FOR RETROSPECTIVE

Want to know more about the comedy that New York critics called “ more complicated and more multidirectional than one first assumes“?
Click here for deets and treats

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April 18, 2026
Coalition of The Thrilling: Australia, UK, USA Theatre Artists Combine for London Premiere of RETROSPECTIVE
RETROSPECTIVE: The question puzzling famous painter, Rory McGrory, in this new comedy is ‘Asleep or Afterlife? Rory, who may or may not be dreaming, encounters his first wife and two other frenemies from his past amidst a show of his work. This mischievous menage claim they just want to help him get to next while he just wants to wake up. Which will it be?

Make theatre live means making opportunities for creation, contemplation, and yes, comedy. Doing this work across national boundaries proves that there is a constituency that wants to bring people together for enlightenment and entertainment, to as playwright Marsha Norman once wrote, “provide a keyhole into some world that nobody has ever seen.” We want to produce what critic Hilton Als called “…a refraction of reality, containing feelings and thoughts that are put forth, first, in a primary text, which the actor interprets—an interpretation that the director supports or edits, in an attempt to help build, in a made-up world, an atmosphere of verisimilitude.”
And while we do that we think people should laugh because we heed the aphorism attributed to George Bernard Shaw that “If you want to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh …

That’s why Retrospective at the Barons Court Theatre marks the UK premiere of the play that had its world premiere at the 2025 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival in New York. How did this happen? It’s an international collaboration:
- Mon Sans Productions is run by its artistic director Liviu Monsted. Since Mon Sans is dedicated to producing original works with compelling themes and unique narratives, they decided to celebrate their 2026 London residency with an American play that asks the universal question of what happens…next? Mon Sans, an incubator for creatives looking to make their first or returning steps to theatre, will be bringing the work of playwright, T.J. Elliott, to UK audiences for the first time.
- Knowledge Workings Theatre Company is a family-run, Off-Broadway, independent production company dedicated to creating provocative, thoughtful new works that question how we learn, grow, and remember. With a commitment to intimate storytelling and collaborative development, the company champions work that challenges assumptions and ignites conversation. But the person who brouight together Liviu and T.J. with their respective conmanies for this venture is…
- Leo Bacica of Barons Court Theatre true to the spirit that brought his group the COMMENDATION FOR SERVICES TO NEW WRITING 2024 connected director and playwright. Zoom calls that run respectively at 8AM, 1PM, and Midnight allowed the trio to find common cause resulting in this project and continuing Barons Court Theatre’s focus on supporting artists who have come to the industry in non-traditional ways and who have limited networks in the UK.
- Get your tickets now at this link for one of eight performances only
  starting May 14th
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January 15, 2026
London Calling: RETROSPECTIVE Opens in the UK May 14th at Barons Court Theatre
Our excellent artwork above by Sarah Lewis Smith heralds our upcoming London run

Yep, it’s happening: get thee to Merrie Old England during the lusty month of May to see this new production. Mon Sans Productions in collaboration with Knowledge Workings Theater will produce the UK premiere of Retrospective by T.J. Elliott at Barons Court Theater in London opening May 14th and running for eight performances. Liviu Monsted of Mon Sans will direct this comedy about a famous painter — who may or may not be dreaming — encountering his first wife and other haunting figures from his past amidst what they claim is a retrospective of his work. This mischievous ménage swear they just want to help him ’get to next’ but he just wants to wake up. Further information and tickets available at the Barons Court website
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January 10, 2026

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