CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Hen and Chickens Theatre

★★★★

“an old school treat that revels in its mash-up origins”

If you knew nothing more, you might think this head-turning noir thriller was a revival, a dusted-down classic from the golden age of Hollywood.

You might squint your eyes and rack your brain. Was Fred MacMurray in the original, and Barbara Stanwyck? You might drool over the sumptuous costumes – slim silk dresses and tuxedos – and think, yes, I watched this in my Slanket, scoffing a packet of Revels on that snowy day when the Tube was closed.

The quick-witted broads and destructive men, the twisty plot and quickfire dialogue, they are all familiar.

Men say things like, ‘I have half a mind to put you through that wall’ while the waspish women tease with hints of wanton pleasure. A bit of screwball banter here, a bit of corny dialogue there. References to Gardner, Bogie and Bacall. Would it help if it were in black and white…

But no. Snap out of it. Conflict of Interest is a modern original, albeit drenched in homage.

Despite the quipping and the bow ties and the whisky shots, this is 1980s Philadelphia although its themes and sensibilities – around misogyny and victimhood – are pure 2010s. Think Double Indemnity as viewed by Rian Johnson.

Once you’ve orientated yourself in a fluctuating pick-n’mix timescape, matters settle –although never entirely.

This melange is thanks to young writer and star Thomas Carruthers who sets the pace in this bristling law office drama where femmes fatale are prone to turn up, set hearts aflame, slug a gin and slink away.

The first of these is southern belle Rita Lempkin (Rhian Holmes) who wants Art (Carruthers) to clear her of killing her rich husband. Wily Rita has selected Art because he’s worked a similar miracle before. In that case, he went on to marry the accused, Lucy (a brilliant Maeve-Anne Allen), although Art has never figured out Lucy’s true guilt or innocence.

This is something that bothers him and Rita exploits the fact. She recognises a fellow player, because Art isn’t as white as he would wish. The conflict of interest refers to a lot more than just legal compromise.

Meanwhile, embittered law partner Mitch (William Leggetter) hates Art, his father, most women and the world – in that order – and pretty ingenue Talia (Amy Cash) simply wants to get on with her legal career without being badgered by an assortment of Mad Men looking to bag the filly.

So there’s plenty to enjoy in this play which aspires to live on a bigger stage. The five British actors are glittering and accomplished, and director Jazz Sewsanker ensures that impeccably clipped American accents fly across the set at 90mph.

Each character has a quest for truth, not necessarily the actual truth, which might be inconvenient, but a version of the truth they can accommodate. As there are four of them (plus Rita), there’s much to get through in two hours.

That may account for the excess of everything, which can be dizzying. For example, the courtroom drama tropes can’t keep pace and quickly fall away.

The biggest crime – misdemeanour not felony – is the sheer silky smoothness of the production, its remorseless rat-a-tat-tat, with everyone having answers for everything and those answers being long, practised and handily Freudian.

No-one is ever stuck for words. Or favours short ones.

Characters and story are sometimes crowded out by this onslaught so there is little room for people to take a moment to be rocked by revelation. Must get on. Must get on.

However, the case for the prosecution is weak on these grounds alone. The verdict stands: this is an old school treat that revels in its mash-up origins.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Hen and Chickens Theatre

Reviewed on 1st October 2026

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Alfie Cowgill, Rhian Holmes – Lantern Theatre, Sheffield

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

★★★★

“playful, delightfully bonkers yet intelligently conceived”

Mates – ‘sounds like something you’d put on at a pub’ complains one of the budding actors early on in this exuberant and often hilarious metatheatrical comedy; and indeed, it is. Or rather, a highly reputable theatre above a pub in Islington. Billed as ‘a play by four mates about four mates trying to make a play about four mates,’ Mates is an all-male four-hander which explores shifting friendship dynamics, male competitiveness and innate vulnerability; the boisterous yet fragile male ego is on full display here. So too is a zany, creative chaos engendered by the unenviable task of having to produce a play with no script, director or venue booked.

The four actor friends get together after years apart to devise a piece of theatre which has apparent funding from a mysterious backer referred to as ‘The Prince.’ Contracts have been signed with a £999,999 liability clause. This raises the stakes of the drama, and we see how the characters react under pressure and the cracks that begin to appear in their friendship. Ciaran Duce (Luke) Joseph Ollman (Max) Jack Staddon (Cosmo) and Kieran Urquhart (JJ) demonstrate great comic timing, physical stage presence and are to be commended for their boundless laddish energy and evident confidence and joy in working as an ensemble.

The director, Will Merick, and movement director, Emily Orme, are to be congratulated for creating dynamic and engaging fast-paced scenes and for the strong element of physical theatre in the piece. Contact improvisation, the ability to instantly recreate very different locations on stage through physical movement and a brilliantly conceived and hilarious dance routine raise it to the next level. Nick Coppell, the technical engineer, also helps to enhance the innate theatricality of the piece and atmosphere through timely music, and a variety of different sound and lighting cues.

The playwriting is topical, even zeitgeisty with references to toxic masculinity, radical empathy, and paedophile gangs in the upper echelons of society. It is also clever – deviating into more surreal, philosophical territory when the characters become talking heads through holes in a hastily erected piece of black fabric. Thus begins an existential angst-ridden discourse on the nature of time and human existence. And for those who delight in metatheatrical drama, Mates will not disappoint – this is not just a play within a play – but several plays within a play – each actor competing with his mates for his own outlandish idea to be chosen for the actual production.

The shift at the end of the play towards dramatising a more emotionally authentic connection between the characters is to be applauded. Yet the scene set on ‘Banana Island,’ whilst delightfully comical, doesn’t quite land emotionally. However, this play deserves a longer run. Mates is a playful, delightfully bonkers yet intelligently conceived and executed piece of theatre’ it will hold your attention throughout. Ultimately, it is a joyous celebration of straight male friendship, theatre, and the very human proclivity to imagine a life beyond the ordinary. As JJ (Kieran Urquhart) proclaims whilst directing his play within the play, ‘I say invoke the spirits of the theatre. Tell your theatre your dreams!’

Tag Archives: Hen and Chickens Theatre

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

★★★★

Hen and Chickens Theatre

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Hen and Chickens Theatre

★★★★

“an old school treat that revels in its mash-up origins”