LONG AFTER THE LABYRINTH
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
★★★
“a muscular play with strong storytelling and an important message”
From the history of horror and trauma suffered by European Jews through the Second World War comes a piece that many of us know little about.
In May 1941 Germany bombed, invaded and then occupied Crete. In Long After the Labyrinth we look at the impact on the island’s Romaniote Jews, who settled there some 2,300 years ago and who at the time of the occupation numbered in the hundreds.
Writer Jonathan D’Young and director Ramon Ayres have taken this start point to create a fictional narrative following the fortunes, before, during and after the war, of a young Jewish girl, Rena. She is hidden when her people are rounded up, escaping deportation but losing her entire birth family when they are shipped away by boat.
This is a complex and poignant piece, interweaving the ancient history of Crete and the Labyrinth with Rena’s lived experience of psychological trauma. The Minotaur of the ancient myths becomes a metaphor for the horror and rage that never entirely leaves her.
An impressive list of collaborators, including The Ancient Peace Studies Network and NMT Automatics, has helped bring Rena’s story to life. On what I assume was a minimal budget, the team make highly creative use of lighting, music, projections and screens. This last takes the form of an unmissable curtain that almost deserves to be cited as a cast member, helping us shift time and place, and enter, at points, the labyrinth itself.
Genevieve Dunne plays Rena in a standout performance, growing from early childhood to old woman. Her versatility and emotional range hold everything together. This matters because, although she is supported by a highly able cast (Leonie Hill, Harry Lukakis and Noah Young) who take on the multiple parts, the changes of roles can hover on the edge of confusion. Mostly sufficient distinction in their performances avoids the trap.
There is no avoiding the fact that this drama has an agenda: to explore trauma and the difficulty of achieving personal peace long after external peace has been declared. It uses an interesting mix of ancient and modern to do so. The result is some over-writing and creative excess. The narrative is a little too long for comfort and relies on audience familiarity with history.
That said, it is a muscular play with strong storytelling and an important message about peacebuilding, worth seeing for Dunne’s performance and the inventiveness of the creative team.
LONG AFTER THE LABYRINTH
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
Reviewed on 23rd October 2026
by Louise Sibley
Photography by Inigo Woodham-Smith
