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.

THE BILLIONAIRE INSIDE YOUR HEAD

Hampstead Theatre

Reviewed on 26th September 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Rich Lakos

Previously reviewed at this venue:

SHOWMANISM | ★★★★ | June 2025

LETTERS FROM MAX | ★★★★ | June 2025

HOUSE OF GAMES | ★★★ | May 2025

PERSONAL VALUES | ★★★ | April 2025

APEX PREDATOR | ★★ | March 2025

THE HABITS | ★★★★★ | March 2025

EAST IS SOUTH | ★★★ | February 2025

AN INTERROGATION | ★★★★ | January 2025

THE BILLIONAIRE

★★★★

“a gentle and delicate slow burner”

Clarkston is a small city in Washington State in the far northwest of the United States, named after William Clark of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition. Over two centuries ago, the intrepid couple set out on a journey to explore the vast, uncharted lands of the American West. Land that was acquired through the ‘Louisiana Purchase’ (the impact on Native Americans is another matter – for another article, at another time). It was a two-and-a-half-year journey that ended with them setting up camp at what is now Clarkston (not Lewiston?). Two hundred years later, where the rivers meet on the Idaho border, a Costco warehouse store now stands in pride of place.

That much is fact. Fiction now takes over in the form of Samuel D. Hunter’s new play set predominantly in that Costco. Jake (Joe Locke) has made the trek from Connecticut only to wind up as a night shift worker stacking shelves, and is taken under the wing of fellow worker, Chris (Ruaridh Mollica), a local lad. They are essentially chalk and cheese but quickly form a strong, and often tender, bond. Jake comes from an affluent family, educated but complicated, while Chris is stuck in the backwaters trying to save up to go to college. What informs the narrative are the shadows that hang over them: Jake’s in the shape of his progressive Huntington’s disease (he reckons he has eight years left to live at tops), while Chris is eclipsed by the presence of his drug-addict mother, Trisha (Sophie Melville).

Hunter’s writing is solid yet nuanced, achieving a delicate balance of humour and introspection, with complete authenticity. There’s a hopelessness that is somewhat bleak, but the performances keep us engaged throughout and we cannot help but care for these two lost souls. Locke shows real strength as a somewhat weak and ambiguous character, full of contradictions. He claims he has been dumped by his boyfriend, but the relationship was never consummated. His sophistication is a shroud, while Chris is more honest about his inexperience. Mollica’s portrayal is a masterclass in subtlety and understatement, gently revealing a tortured personality. Likewise, the play is a gentle and delicate slow burner, intermittently rippled by Melville’s self-destructive anguish as Trisha. She seems to accept, but cannot fully understand, her son’s sexuality, but Melville gives an utterly convincing show of maternal love that is blurred by the grip of dependency – a dependency not just on her drugs but on Chris too. She occasionally becomes the child, sheepishly downplaying her relapse.

Yet at its centre is the relationship between Jake and Chris. For the most part, this play has the feel of a two-hander. Director, Jack Serio, keeps the naturalism in sharp focus, almost ensuring us that we are witnessing real life (Jake claims to be a direct descendant of the American explorer, William Clark, and we believe it). Milla Clarke’s storehouse set reinforces the realism, and when needed, Stacey Derosier’s evocative lighting transports us to a new dawn on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. We are left with feelings of hope that hint at an escape form the gloom.

“Clarkston” is fairly low on drama, but it is steeped in atmosphere. Moving and vulnerable, it languidly coaxes its themes out of the closet and into our hearts. Not necessarily life-changing but definitely life-affirming. On the surface somewhat ordinary but ultimately shaped into something quite extraordinary.

Tag Archives: Jonathan Evans

THE BILLIONAIRE INSIDE YOUR HEAD

★★★

Hampstead Theatre

THE BILLIONAIRE INSIDE YOUR HEAD

Hampstead Theatre

★★★

“an extraordinary piece that gets under our skin”