LOOP

Theatre503

★★★★

“full of sharp storytelling, strong physical comedy and quickfire characterisation”

Upon entering Theatre503, you’re first confronted by the smell of soil. On stage: torn sections of soiled mattress, slabs of broken tile, decaying brickwork and dead reeds leaning like ghosts in the dingy corners. A solitary wooden throne sits amid the wreckage. It’s oppressive, grotty and unexpectedly intricate for such a small black-box space — a patchwork ruin that establishes Loop as a story rooted in one woman’s mental decay, liminality and obsession.

Written and performed by Tanya-Loretta Dee, Loop follows Bex, a balloon-animal-twisting party-shop employee whose world is quietly collapsing around her. She falls for a customer, James, a sweater-vested man in tortoiseshell glasses with secrets of his own. Though Bex initially insists he isn’t her type, their connection quickly slips into a tale of longing, fantasy and fixation.

The beats of the story are familiar — the intoxicating rush, the near-inevitable disappointment and the growing volatility of a relationship built in hotel rooms, toilets and other spaces not quite fit for life — but Dee’s telling never feels stale. Bex’s tale is consistently funny, full of sharp storytelling, strong physical comedy and quickfire characterisation. And as the second half darkens, you’ll catch your breath and wonder just how far down the rabbit hole the protagonist you’ve been rooting for might go.

Dee’s performance is the anchor of the play’s success, holding you from the outset with a raw earnestness as she charts Bex’s friction, longing, delusion and descent without ever losing our sympathy. Adorned in a near-bridal white dress that gradually soils with the dirt and muck around her, she shifts effortlessly between predator and prey; her eyes widen with naivety before reeling you back with a knowing wink. You root for her even in her worst moments.

If there is a criticism, it’s that the familiarity of the overall “men being bastards” storyline occasionally leaves you wishing the script had waded deeper into the murk it hints at. Generational patterns of trauma, Bex’s childhood and the roots of her compulsions are all touched upon but left somewhat submerged — though perhaps, as in life, those cycles resist neat explanation, and there is no single clear-cut reason she becomes the way she is.

Sophie Ellerby’s direction is superb, making clever use of the dismantled mattresses, balloons and even the dirt itself to bring the story to life. Bex constantly rearranges the set, shifting objects to form beds, barriers and thresholds, each movement reflecting the instability of her inner world. Cheng Keng’s lighting design tightens around her like a noose, building tension through stark isolations and sharp use of colour, while projected text messages heighten her distress.

Still, the overall effect is striking. For a venue of this size, the production achieves an impressive sense of scale and texture. The set (Mydd Pharo), with its mix of stone, tile and exposed brick, feels almost like a psychological excavation site.

While the narrative runs a little predictably — a woman falling for, and ultimately enduring, the carelessness of a man — the production distinguishes itself through the precision of its execution and the clarity of its voice. It ends with something close to a “they all lived happily ever after” flourish, though a final barb reminds us how easily these patterns can repeat. Even the audience groaned at the dawning realisation that Bex may not be completely out of the woods yet.

As Tanya-Loretta Dee’s debut full-length play, Loop confirms that her future as both writer and performer is exceptionally promising. It may not reinvent its genre, but it delivers a funny, tense and compelling descent into obsession — told with confidence, imagination and a design team working at the top of their game.

LOOP

Theatre503

Reviewed on 14th November 2025

by Daniel Outis

Photography by Zoë Birkbeck

Previously reviewed at this venue:

APRICOT | ★★★★ | March 2024

A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK | ★★★★★ | November 2023

ZOMBIEGATE | ★★★ | November 2022

I CAN’T HEAR YOU | ★★★★ | July 2022

TIL DEATH DO US PART | ★★★★★ | May 2022

Loop

Loop

Loop