LEE

Park Theatre

★★★½

“The script glimmers with astute judgements, informative history, and shrewd wit”

Cian Griffin’s new play, Lee, delights with an emotive and well-researched take on a formidable artist. However, much like the organised chaos of Krasner’s recreated studio and Abstract Expressionist paintings, the show’s message at times felt jumbled and hard to discern.

Springs, New York, 1969: 13 years after the death of her husband, Jackson Pollock, Krasner is working on her latest painting, ‘Portrait in Green’. Hank, local delivery boy and art student, interrupts Krasner’s flow to seek advice on his portfolio and authenticate a painting given by Pollock to settle a debt with Hank’s father. The play weaves together imagined conversations between Krasner, Pollock and Hank, exploring her continued fight to make men see the worth in the work of female artists. The question remains, however: what freedoms lie in store for Krasner should she herself shake the weight of valuing their opinions?

Before a word is spoken, Jason Moore’s insightful direction sets the scene as Pollock (Tom Andrews) wanders onstage to cast an ever-critical eye upon Krasner’s paintings. Setting up their power struggle, Krasner, played by Olivier-nominated Helen Goldwyn, sets foot onstage with instant stage presence. In a captivating moment of live painting, Goldwyn lays down long brushstrokes with the unstudied air of a great artist’s intuition. The play certainly shines in its exciting and unique interactions – if only there had been more of them – with Ian Nicholas’ exceptional set design. There is certainly a commendable eye for detail in recreating Krasner’s Springs studio, with copies of Lee Krasner’s artworks and paint splatters on the floor that concretise the space and anchor the imagined action.

In 85 minutes, Griffin packs in a lot, although perhaps too much. Dialogue moves through meditations upon the artist’s raison d’être, Hank’s relationship with his father, Krasner’s with Pollock, the sexism of the American art scene. The script glimmers with astute judgements, informative history, and shrewd wit. This is excellently brought out in pacy back-and-forths between Goldwyn, superbly convincing as an acerbic Krasner, and Andrews, hands shaking from Pollock’s excessive alcoholism as he holds cigarettes to his sour face. Will Bagnall provides a welcome relief to the artists’ pessimism, perfectly embodying a young artist’s creative passion and naivety in a wide-eyed stare and shy smile.

That said, emotional highs and lows feel unexpectedly sudden at times, and the play’s structure could be improved for clarity. Pollock appears rather sporadically throughout the play, in scenes that can detract from a clear understanding and progression between the production’s main plot points. It is also clear Griffin completed extensive research, although evidence of such felt a touch heavy-handed at times. This historical reimagining, interspersing fantasy and reality, made it difficult to decipher fact from fiction – although perhaps this device was employed to encourage the audience to investigate further, which I certainly did.

The play’s attempt to centralise the too-oft marginalised ‘wife’ to the celebrity male artist is mostly successful, albeit obscured at times by the interwoven storylines of the male parts themselves. Overall, Lee is worth the watch – it draws audiences into the wonderful wit, work and world of Lee Krasner, bringing her out of the shadows and shedding light upon her enormous influence on generations of artists.

LEE

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 30th September 2025

by Lara Bainbridge

Photography by Giacomo Giannelli

LEE

THE ELEPHANT SONG at the Park Theatre

★★★★

“The audience are kept on the edge of their seats with plenty of will-they-won’t-they moments in the script”

Michael Aleen (Gwithian Evans) is a young man who communicates best when he’s sharing facts about elephants. He’s also institutionalised and is smarter than anyone in the entire hospital. At least, that’s how Nurse Peterson describes him.

The Elephant Song is a poignant three-hander about perception, humanity and trauma, deftly handled by the cast with a lightness of touch that allows the heavier bits to sit just long enough, but which are then expertly transformed into levity thanks to the cast’s and director (Jason Moore’s) impeccable comic timing.

Dr Greenberg (Jon Osbaldeston) is the hospital’s director – on the hunt for missing Dr Lawrence who has disappeared from the psychiatric ward. Michael was the last person to see him alive. The two prowl around the stage together – Michael, playing games with the director, while Dr Greenberg struggles with containing his frustration and bubbling anger. At times it seems as though he might attack Michael and give him a good shake, but Michael is always one step ahead, and this cat and mouse play is perfectly brought together by Moore’s direction.

The constant presence of Nurse Peterson (Louise Faulkner) with her no-nonsense advice to Dr Greenberg is a reassuring one – Faulkner plays her in a matronly way, which is the perfect antidote to the unpredictability of the two men. It’s times with Nurse Peterson that Michael seems most relaxed and the way the cast change their pitch and delivery as frequently as Michael’s mood changes is fascinating to watch.

The audience are kept on the edge of their seats with plenty of will-they-won’t-they moments in the script, written in 2002 by Nicolas Billon. We become part of the same game Michael is orchestrating and at times, the tension is so finely curated by the cast and crew that the air in the theatre appears to freeze, before relaxing each moment finger by finger so the audience is released back to play the game again. Michael really likes playing games, Nurse Peterson tells Dr Greenberg when he arrives.

The set, designed by Ian Nicholas, was pared back enough to allow the dialogue to take centre stage, but there were some nice design touches that were incorporated into the play. The Newton’s Cradle was used to create audible tension, while the ticking metronome played its part when Michael asked Dr Greenberg about his wife’s biological clock. I especially enjoyed the range of psychiatry pictures on the back wall, including a framed print of the Rorschach Test.

If there’s one weak point, it’s that some parts of the script haven’t aged well. There are some slightly uncomfortable fat-shaming jokes and use of the C-word that may have been more acceptable when the script was written, but now feel like unnecessary additions. Of course this is out of the hands of the brilliant actors and director – but perhaps just an interesting reminder that the world is changing quickly, and theatre is an interesting place to see that happen in real time.

LEE

Park Theatre

★★★½

“The script glimmers with astute judgements, informative history, and shrewd wit”

LEE

Park Theatre

Reviewed on 30th September 2025

by Lara Bainbridge

Photography by Giacomo Giannelli

Previously reviewed at this venue:

LEE

LEE

LEE

THE ELEPHANT SONG at the Park Theatre

★★★★

“The audience are kept on the edge of their seats with plenty of will-they-won’t-they moments in the script”

Michael Aleen (Gwithian Evans) is a young man who communicates best when he’s sharing facts about elephants. He’s also institutionalised and is smarter than anyone in the entire hospital. At least, that’s how Nurse Peterson describes him.

Reviewed on 23rd January 2023

by Eleanor Ross

Photography by Giacomo Giannelli

Previously reviewed at this venue:

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