THE HABITS
Hampstead Theatre
★★★★★
“high and low stakes all come together into a funny – and moving – confection, thanks to a five-strong cast”
In The Habits, a blizzard of spells is cast across the small theatre space, the most potent of which captivates an audience left utterly enchanted by a drama about the stories we tell ourselves to get by.
The setting is Warboar Board Games café in Bromley.
Three friends have gathered, as they have done every Thursday for months. This is another session of Dungeons and Dragons, the tabletop role-playing game where players create characters and embark on collaborative adventures, guided by a Dungeon Master who narrates the story, sets challenges, and determines outcomes based on dice rolls.
Teenage student Jess is the Dungeon Master drawing her story from a heavily-inked book of frantic notes and sketches. She is transfixed, perhaps to an unhealthy degree, by the dark imagery of her quest. With her is Maryn, an overworked trainee solicitor and part-time wizard; and Milo, a reluctant job seeker and warrior princess.
They are on a mission to defeat the Nightmare King. Who is, of course, both real and not real.
Because while the players fight orcs by day, they battle demons by night. This is especially true of 16-year-old Jess who is dealing with the death of her brother and sinking herself into the game he loved in order to find a way through her grief.
She finds truth in fantasy.
Meanwhile, the venue itself is in crisis. Caffe Nero is hovering with offers. Owner Dennis is 55 and wondering if a life of games and light lute plucking is one of significance. He’s thinking of selling up, threatening to deny Jess the denouement she needs. Besides, he has a new girlfriend, Bev, a hard-nosed copper who doesn’t get “dragons and things” and, if pushed prefers, urgh, Monopoly.
“No games,” she demands of their relationship and their pastimes.
Pope John Paul II once said, “Of all the unimportant things, football is the most important.” The same is true of D&D. Jack Bradfield’s labour-of-love play captures the benign and jolly idiocy of this mismatch with a pitch perfect ear, drawing on his own experiences as a D&D fan. The script leans into the comedy: the wry and twinkly banter, the bickering and sense of family. Players relish the fact they have found their tribe and quibble on matters that, to outsiders, might seem arcane.
These high and low stakes all come together into a funny – and moving – confection, thanks to a five-strong cast.
Ruby Stokes as Jess is mesmeric – diffident and truculent and racked by unvoiced pain. Paul Thornley as Dennis brings an engaging hangdog warmth to the conflicted man-boy café owner, recognising, but not relinquishing, his own little fantasy. Debra Baker works wonders with Bev. The role is little more than a cameo, but she creates a pin-sharp portrait with just a look and a line. The fractious relationship between Milo (Jamie Bisping) and Maryn (Sara Hazemi) is underwritten but the actors pile into their characters with gusto, as D&D demands.
Ed Madden’s direction conjures the epic scale of their quests using the merest of ingredients, escalating the stakes with epic music and costume. With only a simple set – table, chairs – he takes us on a journey to a dark castle, and into broken hearts.
As Bev says, “You can really see it in your head, can’t you?”
Yes. Yes we can. And it will reside there happily for a long time.
THE HABITS
Hampstead Theatre
Reviewed on 10th March 2025
by Giles Broadbent
Photography by Genevieve Girling
Previously reviewed at this venue:
EAST IS SOUTH | ★★★ | February 2025
AN INTERROGATION | ★★★★ | January 2025
KING JAMES | ★★★★ | November 2024
VISIT FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN | ★★ | July 2024
THE DIVINE MRS S | ★★★★ | March 2024
DOUBLE FEATURE | ★★★★ | February 2024
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | ★★★★ | December 2023
ANTHROPOLOGY | ★★★★ | September 2023
STUMPED | ★★★★ | June 2023
LINCK & MÜLHAHN | ★★★★ | February 2023
