THE UNDYING
Soho Theatre
★★★½
“poignant and challenging”
The Undying is delicate and charmingly playful in its execution of a variety of challenging themes and ideas, but there is room to develop some of these further.
The play, written by Rea Dennhardt Patel, opens on Prav’s 91st birthday, for which his adoring wife Amba gives him a surprise gift: TwiceLife, pills that halve the age of your body each time they are taken.
Despite a long and happy marriage, Amba (played by Vaishnavi Survaprakash) yearns to reap the benefits that shifting attitudes have had on gender equality and take the opportunity to fulfil her lifetime dream to study and practice medicine, something that was not available to her in her time. Survaprakash provides playfulness and depth, portraying the muted frustration of someone who has taken the back seat all their life and the excited hopefulness of a second chance that characterises Amba (‘I’m running towards something, Prav. Let’s run together’).
Prav (played by Akaash Dev Shemar) refuses to take the pill initially, content with the life they have shared, so Amba takes the plunge without him, halving her age to forty-something. After witnessing his wife’s newfound virility, and becoming wary of his ever-looming Alzheimer’s, Prav succumbs and joins his wife in their forties.
But there’s catch – each time your body-age halves, you lose the memories attached to the years you shave off. This leads to an interesting examination of how this changes the motivations and personalities of Amba and Prav, and the subsequent impact that has on their previously strong relationship. Horizons have widened for Amba, whereas Prav is left using the internet to learn to cook for the first time. Shemar becomes increasingly charming as he ages down, leaning into comedy with ease.
Patel’s writing makes good use of irony, and the script is peppered with humour (much of it pointed at a post-internet generation). Most of the jokes land well and the audience was laughing along. As the characters age backwards, leaving behind more memories, the rose-tinted glasses are lifted and the stakes increase as we learn more about trauma in their past.
Directed by Imy Wyatt Corner, the tone of the piece oscillates between the poignancy that comes with themes of memory (loss), grief and parenthood and the comedy woven throughout – but sometimes in the middle of one line of dialogue. While the jokes provide good comic relief, they sometimes feel a little numerous and undermine the emotion of some scenes. This prevents the emotional climax of the play, centred around a childhood trauma, from reaching its full potential.
I enjoyed Corner’s choice to have the couple lose their Indian accents as the age-down, as though they became second-generation immigrants, becoming more distant from their traditions.
Guided by Consultant Sammy Dowson, the set design was very appealing and curated. Comprising simply of a large rug which delineated the playing space, an armchair, coffee table and stool, all the action takes place in this domestic setting, centring the couple’s relationship. On the back wall hung a gallery of empty golden frames, with words describing their contents projected into them. As Amba and Prav age-down and forget various memories, these fade away leaving the audience struggling to remember the contents as well (Lighting and AV by Rajiv Pattani).
Harmonious live percussion (by Ansuman Biswas) provides a soundscape to the TwiceLife taking effect and underscore various other key moments. This adds to the playful tone throughout.
The Undying is poignant and challenging – it left me wondering what I would do if I had a second chance. Whilst the characters are both sympathetic and the play balances comedy with heavy themes, it perhaps (albeit ambitiously) tackles too many big ideas in a short time.
THE UNDYING
Soho Theatre
Reviewed on 9th February 2026
by Ashley Purt
Photography by Tobi Ejrele
