★★★

“a thoroughly enjoyable evening”

Adapted for the stage by director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, ‘The Shadow in the Mirror’ reimagines Gerald Durrell’s short story ‘The Entrance’, in which the English antiquarian Peter Letting (Nick Waring) becomes embroiled in a supernatural curse through his employment by a young French nobleman (Gregg Lowe). Set between the prison in which Letting is forced to confess his supernatural experiences, the courtroom, his home in England, and the haunted house he unwittingly enters to catalogue the exquisite book collection of a dead man, the production delivers an entertaining, easy-to-watch night of light horror.

With a floor-to-ceiling, rounded mirror in the middle of the stage, Diego Pitarch’s elaborate set unquestionably evokes the right quasi-Victorian mystery, though the omission of a proper bookcase is just as mysterious. The central mirror is flanked by stairs and balconies, with one side subtly accommodating the seedier haunts the story takes us, and the other the more respectable spaces. However, it is not a very efficient set: its level of detail makes it feel static and ill-suited to the continuous transformation the narrative demands, leaving the ensemble to rely on Bruce-Lockhart’s dynamic direction and Mike Robertson’s atmospheric lighting to evoke changes of scene.

In the director’s adaptation, much time is spent setting up the action in the first act, making the second act feel rather plot-heavy. Staging the occult is difficult, and Bruce-Lockhart’s script depends on the continuous description of past events to do it. Simon Slater’s extensive sound design brings the narration to life, though the many sound effects sometimes border on gimmicky. As Peter Letting, Waring is often left repeating the words ‘and then…’, rendering the production somewhat guilty of a “tell don’t show” approach. The previously mentioned central mirror at the back of the stage remained criminally underused during the many descriptions of ‘what Peter Letting saw’ (in his reflection). John the jailer (George Dillon) is an engaging storyteller, but the cast shines in scenes with more action, with a particularly entertaining performance by Giles Taylor as the prosecutor in Letting’s trial.

A ticket to this production at the Mill at Sonning near Reading includes the performance as well as a comforting two-course meal in its atmospheric historic restaurant. In combination, the Mill at Sonning and ‘The Shadow in the Mirror’ deliver a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

WILKO

Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★

“None of what follows would be remotely plausible without the sterling performance of Johnson Willis who wholly inhabits the fractious rebel”

Stilted Guitar Dalek, poet, philosopher and musical pioneer Wilko Johnson enjoys yet another resurgence in writer Jonathan Maitland’s affectionate stage biography.

The Dr Feelgood founder was famously diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012 but remarkably lived another decade or so. At his farewell concert in Camden in 2013 he was so spritely for a dead man walking that a doctor friend suggested he might be a candidate for a life-saving op. And so it came about.

However, we meet the musician just after his initial diagnosis and find him in good spirits.
“I can live with it,” he says of his cancer. “I can be alive with it.”

The death sentence takes him back to the beginning, to his Canvey Island youth, abusive father, teenage love and musical escape.

None of what follows would be remotely plausible without the sterling performance of Johnson Willis who wholly inhabits the fractious rebel. His nasal intonation, coupled with his studied over pronunciation and stiff physicality bring to mind Kenneth Williams as a Thunderbirds puppet.

Director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart’s production takes us on a journey of Essex, drugs and rock’n’roll as Wilko discovers a way of adapting the blues to fit his version of England – all oil terminals, chip shops and clinches under the pier. Dr Feelgood produce a clipped and insistent interpretation of R&B that brings them chart success and paves the way for punk.

The cast, who previously provided cameos to illustrate Wilko’s fragmented origin story, comes together to form Dr Feelgood and everything makes sense, both for Wilko and the audience.

Georgina Field (bass), David John (drums), and Jon House (vocals and harmonica) are a tight unit. House’s Lee Brilleaux, in particular, brings his A-game to offer up a rug-burning explosion of dad rock.

In Maitland’s unbalanced re-telling, the play rushes past the Dr Feelgood heyday too early, dismissing the intriguing artistic spat between Wilko and Brilleaux in a few unhelpful lines. The reasons why Dr Feelgood went on to greater success without their destructive songwriter are never explored.

Afterwards, with Wilko drifting, the play seems to run out of momentum, and we are left – along with Wilko – mourning the passing of his sparky wife Irene (a lovely performance by Georgina Fairbanks) who stayed with him despite his numerous cruel infidelities.

Little wonder then that the production uses Wilko’s second lease of life and his Scrooge-like transformation to bring about a fantasy Dr Feelgood reunion gig which adds little dramatic coherence but gives the audience what they want when they need it most.

The Guardian once wrote that Wilko Johnson was “a 100-1 shot to be our Greatest Living Englishman”. We get glimpses of that cantankerous, selfish, charismatic and much-cherished artist, but this production is frustratingly incurious about the contradictions, aspiring to be kind rather than clinical. Feelgood by name…

THE SHADOW IN THE MIRROR

The Mill at Sonning

★★★

“a thoroughly enjoyable evening”

THE SHADOW IN THE MIRROR

The Mill at Sonning

Reviewed on 26th September 2025

by Lola Stakenburg

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE SHADOW

THE SHADOW

THE SHADOW

WILKO

Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★

“None of what follows would be remotely plausible without the sterling performance of Johnson Willis who wholly inhabits the fractious rebel”

WILKO

Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 24th March 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Mark Sepple

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WILKO

WILKO

WILKO

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