Tag Archives: Jack Knowles

APEX PREDATOR

★★

Hampstead Theatre

APEX PREDATOR

Hampstead Theatre

★★

“the entire cast do as much as they can with the raw tools they’ve been given”

Has the time arrived for a new vampire story? John Donnelly thinks so. But unfortunately, his newest play, Apex Predator, can’t quite seem to decide what it wants to be — a commentary on postpartum depression and psychosis, or a horror-comedy about vampirism as an allegory for modern life. In trying to straddle the line between both worlds, it never really succeeds at either.

From the opening moment, we are reminded that London is a city of violence. Not only that, but no one in this city is going to help you, not really. If you expect to survive, you’re going to have to be strong. But Mia (Sophie Melville) is hardly feeling strong at the moment — her newborn, Isla, won’t feed. Her son, Alfie (Callum Knowelden), is being bullied at school. And on top of it all, her husband Joe (Bryan Dick) is sometimes away for days at his secretive job. When he does come home, they mostly bicker. Mia is exhausted. The neighbours are a nuisance, throwing parties with loud music, forcing Mia to bounce Isla to sleep night after night, and Joe seems… well, entirely unbothered by this. If anything, he appears agitated that his wife is having a tough time. Enter Alfie’s new art teacher, Ana (Laura Whitmore), who may just be able to offer Mia a way forward. The premise is interesting, if a bit old hat. How do we protect ourselves, but especially our children, in a world that grows more dangerous by the day? It’s unfortunate that each idea in the script feels under-developed, spawning into some new thread, while we ache for the previous thread to be tied.

Blanche McIntyre’s direction is confusing at times. Moments that feel like they deserve a bit more room to breathe are quite rushed, namely Mia and Ana’s very first meeting. Mia has rushed to Alfie’s school, to assert her son’s right to defend himself — he’s bitten another child, which feels like a bit of a flat pun, given the subject matter — and Ana switches from critical school bureaucrat to close confidante in ten seconds or less. Some dialogue is played for uncomfortable laughs, when the topic at hand feels anything but funny. In one specific moment, Mia runs round and round in circles, trying to find an escape, when there’s a relatively obvious one in front of her — a door that someone else has walked in through, just moments before. Whether this is down to McIntyre or the production’s Movement Director, Ingrid Mackinnon, is difficult to say.

But there are bright spots here. Whitmore is excellent as Ana, despite her character’s somewhat unconvincing arc. Melville is fascinating to watch as she swings between clarity and madness. Truthfully, the entire cast do as much as they can with the raw tools they’ve been given. The lighting and sound design (Jack Knowles and Chris Shutt, respectively) work together quite synergistically, particularly in a very short scene during the second act that evokes a moment from a slick on-screen horror. It’s just a shame that the story as written doesn’t allow for more of these gorgeous vignettes. The set design (Tom Piper) is excellent making great use of a relatively small space, surrounded by imposing scaffolding. The claustrophobia, the grit of a city like London is keenly felt.

All in all, the potential is there. One simply wishes that Donnelly had — forgive me — sunk his teeth in a bit deeper.



APEX PREDATOR

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 31st March 2025

by Stacey Cullen

Photography by Ellie Kurttz


Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE HABITS | ★★★★★ | March 2025
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

APEX PREDATOR

APEX PREDATOR

APEX PREDATOR

🎭 SHOW OF THE YEAR 2024 🎭

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)

★★★★★

Criterion Theatre

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) at the Criterion Theatre

★★★★★

“the whole show has the feel of a classic, like it has been around for ever, yet it still glows with a freshness and streetwise modernism”

The move from an off-West End theatre into the West End inevitable comes with risks and expectations. Even if it follows a sell-out run, such as enjoyed by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan’s “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” last year at Kiln Theatre. But these two writers have successfully carried a show across London without dropping a crumb, keeping an already perfect concoction fully intact. For anyone who saw it in its smaller setting, the fear that it may have lost its heart and its intimacy in transit is immediately quashed. For anyone who hasn’t seen it before, it is a slice of the West End that is mouth-wateringly irresistible.

The two strangers in question are Dougal (Sam Tutty) and Robin (Dujonna Gift). Dougal is in New York for a whirlwind thirty-six hours, having flown in for the wedding of his father who abandoned him before he was born. Robin, the sister of the bride, has been given the thankless task of meeting him at the airport. Dougal is bubbling with puppy-dog elation, excited at the prospect of meeting his dad and of being in ‘The Big Apple’. He lives in a dreamworld; a world of hope that he has built from the many films he has watched. Robin exists in a land of cynicism, tethered to reality by the ghosts of past, present and future. They are chalk and cheese.

On the surface we are in Rom-com territory. But this unique musical makes us think again. It pays homage to the genre, but subverts it with affection and stunning inventiveness. Barne and Buchan – the writers of the book, music and lyrics – are childhood friends who have grown up together through music. And it shows. Amazingly they wrote it before either had been to New York, which is what probably gives it its magical quality, viewing the city like it’s a mythical land of ‘Oz’. Yet beneath the fairy-tale stardust is a character driven story that is funny, natural and heart-warming.

“Tutty can cast a laugh-out-loud one-liner and wrap it around a tear-jerking anecdote with worldly skill”

The show is chock-a-block with standout musical numbers. Yet still there is more than enough dialogue, giving the two actors plenty to chew on, and to showcase their formidable acting skills. Their range, which can rake up many emotions, matches their vocal versatility. From the opening, crowd-pleasing overture, ‘New York’, we get an instant picture of the two personalities. Sam Tutty’s Dougal is intensely irritating but insanely vulnerable and gorgeous. Tutty can cast a laugh-out-loud one-liner and wrap it around a tear-jerking anecdote with worldly skill. His brash, ingenuous shell is dangerously fragile. Dujonna Gift, as Robin, is the antithesis of the American Dream, hard yet vulnerable, and cannot seem to shake off her nightmares – the latest of which has arrived in the form of her prospective nephew-in-law. They initially clash, but the sparks that fly are hot enough to weld them together.

Through the songs they bond – at first reluctantly. ‘On the App’ is a sensational staccato number that showcases the clever lyrics that run through the show. Like many of the songs it is rhapsodic in nature, the distinct rhythms giving way to a smooth, flowing chorus. Act Two opener, ‘The Hangover Duet’ is similarly eclectic. ‘The Argument’, with its semi-spoken, urban rap, is delivered with precision timing by Gift and Tutty. The delivery and lyrical content of the songs are razor sharp, often cutting open heartrending and bitter reveals. ‘Under the Mistletoe’, a gorgeous parody of the seasonal hits that crowd the airwaves every year, rises above pastiche as it mocks its source material while moulding itself into an instant classic of its own. In fact, the whole show has the feel of a classic, like it has been around for ever, yet it still glows with a freshness and streetwise modernism. Throw in a sumptuous ballad – Tutty’s ‘Dad’ or ‘About to Go In’. Or Gift’s ‘This Year’ and ‘He Doesn’t Exist’ – and you have a score that lifts the heart and raises the audience to its feet.

Tim Jackson’s lively production sets the action on a revolve that circles Soutra Gilmour’s ingenious set of piles of greyed-out suitcases that open and close to reveal the various locations, props, and the surprises and secrets of our protagonists. And at the centre are Tutty and Gift, a pair whose chemistry fills the air with fizzing electricity. “Two Strangers” (as the title is lovingly shortened to) is part musical, part movie, part fairy-tale, part dream. But wholly unmissable.


TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) at the Criterion Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd April 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Tristram Kenton

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

AMÉLIE THE MUSICAL | ★★★★ | June 2021

TWO STRANGERS

TWO STRANGERS

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