★★★★

“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.

THE BILLIONAIRE INSIDE YOUR HEAD

Hampstead Theatre

★★★

“an extraordinary piece that gets under our skin”

There is a brutal honesty that runs through Will Lord’s debut play, “The Billionaire Inside Your Head”. A truth that is recognisable and unsettling. Lord cuts straight to the chase with an opening monologue delivered with panache, and a touch of menace, by Allison McKenzie. We are asked questions we would never admit to asking ourselves. But on reflection we all do. More often than we’d care to divulge. Nobody offers up an answer (McKenzie provides it anyway). We squirm a bit in our seats, and realise that the traverse seating plan is probably deliberate. We are looking straight at the audience opposite. We are looking at ourselves.

It comes as a relief when the fourth wall is rebuilt and we are drawn into the main narrative of the play (the comfort is short-lived, however). We are in the basement office of a debt collecting firm, bookended by ramshackle filing cabinets. Richie (Nathan Clarke) and Darwin (Ashley Margolis) are old school mates starting out on the lowest rung of the cooperate ladder. They still carry their childhood dreams of becoming billionaires. Hence the title of the play, although “The Voice Inside Your Head” would provide a more accurate description. Richie has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and it is this subtext that quickly comes to the surface and dominates the story.

Clarke and Margolis have a natural onstage chemistry. Friendship, affection and rivalry co-exist as if they were close siblings. Cracks appear, however, when they find they are competing for the same promotion, and the quirkiness of their dialogue – often extremely funny – takes on darker shades. It so happens that their boss is Darwin’s mother, Nicole, (Allison McKenzie), so nepotism versus merit is another spanner that Lord throws into the works. It is possibly all a bit too much and this overcrowding of ideas can lead to confusion. McKenzie plays the mother, and also ‘The Voice’ inside Richie’s head, but with little distinction. Dressed in her crisp white trouser suit for both roles, the accent and vocal inflections never change. We rely on James Whiteside’s lighting; bare lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling light up and flicker as a cartoon-like – but not inappropriate – metaphor whenever McKenzie becomes ‘The Voice’.

Eventually ‘The Voice’ overshadows the action, which is a shame. And we feel we are in two separate dramas. Clarke and Margolis are an engaging couple, verging on bromance. They make fun of each other. Margolis’ Darwin is a bit of a dope-smoking slob, self-assured and secure while Clarke’s Richie is on always edge. The manifestations of his OCD, initially comical, swiftly turn quite sinister and surreal. Lord, himself diagnosed with OCD, tackles the subject with integrity and honesty, but injects extravagant melodrama – which is distracting. Anna Ledwich directs with respect for the writing, yet it appears that she is struggling to decide in what genre she is working.

There are serious issues at stake here, but it is difficult to take them seriously. Richie’s condition is demonised somewhat – the voice in his head grows sadistic, psychotic, angry. Lord’s intentions are applauded and the gripping performances from the cast are applauded even more. It is an extraordinary piece that gets under our skin, but it is administered too indelicately. A little less force would drive the point home more. Nevertheless, it is a compelling watch, and one that certainly makes us question our own voice. We all have one. Maybe we don’t always admit it. The truth is often unsettling and, at least, Lord doesn’t shy away from it.

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

THE BILLIONAIRE INSIDE YOUR HEAD

Hampstead Theatre

★★★

“an extraordinary piece that gets under our skin”