DRAGON IN THE WOODS
Arches Lane Theatre
★★½
“this was certainly an admirable effort”
What happens when the biggest obstacle to true love is yourself? Ben Rath poses us this question in “Dragon in the Woods”, a romantic comedy with a decently entertaining, albeit rambling, plot.
During a chance encounter on the tube, Patrick, also played by Rath, and Kat (Anna Head) hit it off right away under the mischievous gaze of Kat’s best friend, Sarah (Sheriya Clement-Pascall). From there ensues the coupling up of Patrick with Kat, and Sarah with Patrick’s best friend, Will (Jordan Baffana), before the former split up leaving the latter to pick up the pieces. Patrick finds success as a children’s book author and seemingly moves on with florist, Heather (Emma Alys Henderson), and Kat moves to New York. Her return then unearths the buried love between them – but will they finally be able to make it work?
Writer Rath, and director, Danny Jeffs, made their theatrical debut with this play of ‘right person, wrong time’. Commendable moments from Jeffs included the opening shadow sequence, but that was unfortunately never revisited, and his staging of Kat and Patrick’s first date. In an inspired choice, he had Head and Rath foray into the woods (the audience) with torches, before using a disco ball to create a starry night sky that enveloped the theatre and occasioned ‘oohs’ of appreciation – this is the very best of creative thinking and worldmaking that fringe theatre and small budgets often necessitate. The intimate moment was marred, however, by obtrusive and cliché sound design underscoring the dialogue, something which occurred a few times throughout. Furthermore, lengthy blackouts – often to interrupt numerous pretend stage kisses – slowed the play’s pace.
The script itself also suffered from a lack of narrative drive. Jumps in time occurred without much clear signposting, although the acting of Head and Rath helped somewhat to indicate emotional shifts in their relationship. The play’s messaging was left jumbled due to scenes that either meandered in a manner more suited to sitcom than stage, or changed direction suddenly in ways that felt quite contrived. Despite being guilty of this, the last scene’s twist was truly surprising and lent a bittersweet, cynically realistic resolution to the will-they-won’t-they back and forth between Kat and Patrick, and his wrestling between masculinity and emotional expression.
Rath played the emotionally-repressed Scouse lad well, but verged on appearing wooden onstage. Pace and energy certainly lagged in scenes between the central couple. The general lack of projection when speaking, approximating more the hypernaturalism of film than theatre, also left me struggling to hear the lines at times. Clement-Pascall and Baffana’s appearances were always welcome injections of much-needed dynamism, and they masterfully employed comic skill to bring out the humorous dimensions of Rath’s writing. Even still, comedic awkward pauses felt overplayed and overly long by the end, stunting the climactic dinner between all the characters and Head’s shining moment, who nevertheless tugged at heartstrings with a genuinely convincing breakdown after being rejected. This was strongly followed by Alys Henderson’s last appearance, playing Heather with real maturity and grace.
Overall, this was certainly an admirable effort, but both writer and director fell prey to repetition in their respective crafts, staging a play that felt more work-in-progress than polished final piece. There are certainly flickers of real promise, however, that could be developed with tighter writing and more stagecraft experience.
DRAGON IN THE WOODS
Arches Lane Theatre
Reviewed on 16th November 2025
by Lara Bainbridge
Photography by Danny Jeffs
Previously reviewed at this venue:
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