★★★★

“a clever exploration of dysfunctional family life”

‘Fatherland’ is a one-act tragicomic play about feckless fatherhood. About two-thirds through, Joy, on a road trip to Mayo with her father Winston, declares that the best case scenario is getting there and finding Bono is her long lost Dad.

It’s a gloriously funny moment that perfectly captures the theme of Nancy Farino’s mainstream debut. Winston is a well-meaning man, a life coach, trying to be there for his clients and his daughter. But he runs away from the truth.

His abject failure to connect, mainly with twenty-something Joy (played by Farino); his coercion of her into a journey to find their origin family in Ireland; his avoidance of his solicitor’s attempts to get at the circumstances that have led to litigation stemming from his professional conduct; this is all painful to watch.

Writer-performer Farino has written a clever exploration of dysfunctional family life and a sharp, serious poke at a profession which, despite its ethical frameworks, permits people without formal training to counsel the potentially vulnerable.

It’s there as the drama opens. Winston, compellingly acted by Jason Thorpe, is on stage driving his bus. Winston is chanting his personal mantra “My name is Winston Smith and only good things happen to me”. Watching from the sidelines, we know it’s all going to go horribly wrong.

Director Tessa Walker, movement director Rebecca Wield and the production team deserve an award for creating a mime about a converted coach so completely believable that you forget it isn’t actually real. Two scenes run in parallel throughout the drama: the road trip and the interviews with the frustrated solicitor – ably played by Shona Babayemi. Inevitably these two apparently separate sets of action will collide.

Babayemi and Farino are convincing and very watchable. Babayemi is deliberately stiff at the beginning, in her formal outfit, and excellent as she softens into a sympathetic character. Joy is a difficult part to play with reversals in behaviour and her relation of dreams but Farino is truly empathetic performer. Thorpe, however, is the outstanding stage presence. Maybe he could polish the miming a bit, but this is a minor point: playing a fragile man, determined to have everyone, himself included, live their best life, he blends beautifully the comic and the tragic persona of Winston.

If there is a flaw in the play, it is the ending. The play fizzles out unconvincingly and with a reprieve for Winston. In the father/daughter context, it is understandable. A drama could have the courage to end with the final voice message from the solicitor. Altogether, though, it is a real pleasure to see a new piece by a young writer that is so well constructed.

‘Fatherland’ earned Farino a place on Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE programme. This gave her the support and production talent to shape a really excellent piece.

FAREWELL MR HAFFMANN

Park Theatre

★★★★

“Tension and relief are hallmarks of this production as director Oscar Toeman steers us through the shifting moods with slick clarity”

There is a recurring line in Jean-Phillipe Daguerre’s play, “Farewell Mister Haffmann”, that is reprised by nearly all the characters at some point. ‘Courage is stronger than fear’. The quotation could have come from the hand of Mark Twain, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. In some paraphrased version it has probably been cited by many of our respected world leaders and philosophers. It carries the danger of becoming a glib, self-help-manual style platitude, but in the context of this play (translated by Jeremy Sams) it is a crucial motif. Sometimes delivered comically, but more often with poignancy; it exemplifies the fearless way in which Daguerre tackles his subject matter – turning a global narrative into an intimate, human story that is funny – almost farcical. But don’t be complacent. It can suddenly turn on you with the unpredictability of a dangerous dog.

Inspired by Daguerre’s great-grandparents who hid Polish Jews from the Nazis, it is set in Paris over two years from May 1942. Joseph Haffmann (Alex Waldmann), having sent his wife and children to Geneva, decides to hand over his jewellery shop to his loyal, hardworking, non-Jewish assistant, Pierre Vigneau (Michael Fox). It comes with a condition, however. Pierre and his wife Isabelle (Jennifer Kirby) must agree to move into Joseph’s house and hide him in the cellar until normality is resumed. A further twist has Pierre lay down his own condition. His marriage is childless. Unable to get his wife pregnant, he asks Joseph to do the honours as his side of the bargain.

It is all very matter of fact. The scenes flash by in a series of short bursts. Patently, Isabelle is initially reluctant of the proposition made by her husband on her behalf. Less obviously, Pierre is modestly reticent to take over the business. The conversations are awkward and wrought with moral dilemmas. The decisions are made during the semi-dark scene transitions, so we see the causes and the consequences. Kirby is marvellous as Isabelle, presenting the fragile façade that all is well, but letting us know that it will shatter at any moment. Fox’s Pierre, nervous yet jovial at first, slips into angst and jealousy. Whilst his wife does the ‘deed’ with Haffmann, he goes out tap dancing; a routine that he uses to distract himself from what’s going on in the cellar. As the months go by, the dance steps acquire more and more freneticism. All three performances remarkably show the unravelling nature of each personality as the stakes are raised.

It is a jagged little piece. Not every issue is followed through successfully, but the character arcs are well formed. This feels very much like a three hander. Until art-loving, Nazi ambassador Otto Abetz (Nigel Harman) arrives at the eleventh hour. His presence has already been felt and has been a major source of contention between the others so far. Everything changes when Otto arrives for dinner, along with his loose-tongued wife, Suzanne (Jemima Rooper). A dinner served with huge side orders of tension, broken only by Suzanne’s coarse and tactless interjections. Rooper is a sheer delight with her precise comic timing and delivery. Harman, however, keeps her in check with a performance that chills. We teeter between wanting to laugh or letting our jaws drop to the floor in shock. The stillness of Harman’s portrayal conceals a simmering and dangerous mind.

The shift in tone works remarkably well as we are caught as much off guard as the characters within the play. Tension and relief are hallmarks of this production as director Oscar Toeman steers us through the shifting moods with slick clarity; while Asaf Zohar’s sound and Christopher Nairne’s lighting slice the action into glorious bit-sized vignettes. It is a unique portrayal of a much-explored piece of history, made all the more pertinent and unsettling by its light-hearted intimacy. A hasty epilogue slightly dampens the overall effect, but is arguably necessary to cement where Daguerre’s – and our – sympathies lie. We can only imagine the choices people had to make at such a perilous time in history. “Farewell Mister Haffmann” fires our imaginations brilliantly and powerfully. Refreshingly short and sharp but full of savage twists, it is shockingly funny.

FATHERLAND

Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

“a clever exploration of dysfunctional family life”

FATHERLAND

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 6th November 2025

by Louise Sibley

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

FATHERLAND

FATHERLAND

FATHERLAND

FAREWELL MR HAFFMANN

Park Theatre

★★★★

“Tension and relief are hallmarks of this production as director Oscar Toeman steers us through the shifting moods with slick clarity”