THE DUKE is set in 1961 when Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government agreed to provide television for free to the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge – a startling revelation of how a good man set out to change the world and in so doing saved his son and his marriage.

“Stealing from museums may normally be no laughing matter, but here the entire affair is played to the comic hilt, even as it explores more serious issues of income inequality, social class, prejudice, and grief.” -Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Hammer to Nail

Drama

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