MATES
Hen and Chickens Theatre
★★★★
“playful, delightfully bonkers yet intelligently conceived”
Mates – ‘sounds like something you’d put on at a pub’ complains one of the budding actors early on in this exuberant and often hilarious metatheatrical comedy; and indeed, it is. Or rather, a highly reputable theatre above a pub in Islington. Billed as ‘a play by four mates about four mates trying to make a play about four mates,’ Mates is an all-male four-hander which explores shifting friendship dynamics, male competitiveness and innate vulnerability; the boisterous yet fragile male ego is on full display here. So too is a zany, creative chaos engendered by the unenviable task of having to produce a play with no script, director or venue booked.
The four actor friends get together after years apart to devise a piece of theatre which has apparent funding from a mysterious backer referred to as ‘The Prince.’ Contracts have been signed with a £999,999 liability clause. This raises the stakes of the drama, and we see how the characters react under pressure and the cracks that begin to appear in their friendship. Ciaran Duce (Luke) Joseph Ollman (Max) Jack Staddon (Cosmo) and Kieran Urquhart (JJ) demonstrate great comic timing, physical stage presence and are to be commended for their boundless laddish energy and evident confidence and joy in working as an ensemble.
The director, Will Merick, and movement director, Emily Orme, are to be congratulated for creating dynamic and engaging fast-paced scenes and for the strong element of physical theatre in the piece. Contact improvisation, the ability to instantly recreate very different locations on stage through physical movement and a brilliantly conceived and hilarious dance routine raise it to the next level. Nick Coppell, the technical engineer, also helps to enhance the innate theatricality of the piece and atmosphere through timely music, and a variety of different sound and lighting cues.
The playwriting is topical, even zeitgeisty with references to toxic masculinity, radical empathy, and paedophile gangs in the upper echelons of society. It is also clever – deviating into more surreal, philosophical territory when the characters become talking heads through holes in a hastily erected piece of black fabric. Thus begins an existential angst-ridden discourse on the nature of time and human existence. And for those who delight in metatheatrical drama, Mates will not disappoint – this is not just a play within a play – but several plays within a play – each actor competing with his mates for his own outlandish idea to be chosen for the actual production.
The shift at the end of the play towards dramatising a more emotionally authentic connection between the characters is to be applauded. Yet the scene set on ‘Banana Island,’ whilst delightfully comical, doesn’t quite land emotionally. However, this play deserves a longer run. Mates is a playful, delightfully bonkers yet intelligently conceived and executed piece of theatre’ it will hold your attention throughout. Ultimately, it is a joyous celebration of straight male friendship, theatre, and the very human proclivity to imagine a life beyond the ordinary. As JJ (Kieran Urquhart) proclaims whilst directing his play within the play, ‘I say invoke the spirits of the theatre. Tell your theatre your dreams!’
MATES
Hen and Chickens Theatre
Reviewed on 30th January 2026
by Tim Graves
Photography by Sam Travis
