★★★½

“Thought-provoking and supremely relevant”

How relevant can a play from 1599 be in the present day? Can it serve as more than just entertainment? In ‘English Kings Killing Foreigners’, Shakespeare’s Globe Ensemble actors Nina Bowers and Philip Arditti prove that the Bard’s ‘Henry V’, a history play in which the English king invades France to claim the throne, remains disturbingly current.

In the show’s ‘prologue’, Nina (Nina Bowers) and Phil (Philip Arditti) roll out a whiteboard displaying ‘English [Blank] Killing [Blank]’. We are merrily invited to think of the many possible insertions at hand, not-so-subtly probing the audience to conjure up a range of British war crimes etc. With that out of the way, we learn that the lead of a fictional upcoming production of ‘Henry V’ has died and that the inexperienced Nina has unexpectedly been cast as the King. As a Canadian, queer woman of mixed race, the casting is a statement she never asked to make. Begrudgingly encouraged by Jewish-Turkish actor Phil to take the role, the two begin to question what it means to play a white English king as an immigrant in Britain.

Interspersed with a healthy dose of lighter comedy, Bowers and Arditti unpick the colonial underpinnings of Shakespeare’s play, which was written in part to fuel morale for the ongoing war with Ireland in the playwright’s own time. By substituting words in the Chorus’ prologue to the second Act (‘Now all the youth of England are on fire…’), the pair imbue its celebration of violence and war with newfound relevance, drawing painful parallels to the current genocide in Gaza. In a piece that occasionally suffers from an excess of fluff, this scene is undoubtedly the strongest.

In the final act, Nina takes to the stage as Henry V, while Phil assumes his role as the Chorus. In a somewhat confusing and chaotic scene, Phil disrupts Nina’s performance to assert that St George’s flag, which features heavily in this fictional staging, should be discarded rather than reclaimed. With too little build-up to this sudden, dramatic fall-out, the very interesting question of the proper fate of one of Britain’s most controversial symbols feels underexplored and disjointed. It is a symptom of a larger issue: though the two characters work well together, the differences between them are not utilised to their full dramatic potential. Luckily, Bowers and Arditti’s excellent chemistry carries the piece, lending it joy and vivacity that also prevents it from feeling overly didactic.

Thought-provoking and supremely relevant, ‘English Kings Killing Foreigners’ would benefit from a bit of streamlining to make its hard-hitting humour and uncomfortable truths shine. By way of its creators’ satisfying comedic performances, it manages to offer a light exploration of the colonialist narratives that underpin British culture.

ROMANS: A NOVEL

Almeida Theatre

★★★½

“Birch’s experimentation in form is carefully considered and exciting”

Written by Alice Birch, ‘Romans, A Novel’ is, first and foremost, an ambitious play. Spanning about 150 years, it traces the lives of the three improbably slow-aging Roman brothers. It explores themes including masculinity, trauma, individualism, and grief, paying homage to the novel as an enduring literary form all the while. Its approach is of the epic kind, unusual for our day and age, while its exploration of masculinity could not be more topical. Still, ‘Romans’ does not manage to live up to its full potential.

The story is set in three eras, which are matched by the novelistic form roughly dominant at the time depicted. The first half of the play takes place in the first four decades of the 20th century, tracing the lives of the brothers in a somewhat chronological and realist fashion. World War Two features only as a break both in the play and in style – the postwar era and present day which feature after the interval take on a much more fragmentary and satirical tone in homage to modernist and postmodernist literary traditions. Under Sam Pritchard’s direction, the cast jumps effectively between these different styles, while Agnes O’Casey (as the eldest brother’s wife and daughter) and Stuart Thompson (as Edmund, the youngest Roman brother) offer particularly vivid standout performances.

Birch’s experimentation in form is carefully considered and exciting but, beyond the stylistic, her joint engagement with the novel and masculinity feels incomplete. Literary scholars have argued that the eighteenth-century origins of the novel are intertwined with the rise of individualism and a modern understanding of the self. The novel’s fascination with the individual resounds in the selfishness that characterises masculinity in the play, something illustrated by Marlow (Oliver Johnstone) and Jack’s (Kyle Soller) obsession with professional success and disregard for their wives and children. But much of the effectiveness of a novel depends on the strength of its narrative voice and the compelling idiosyncrasies of its characters. This is something Birch’s play lacks. By dealing mostly in fleeting but familiar male types – the cruel boarding school master, the druggy cult guru, the obnoxious billionaire –, ‘Romans’ feels like a slideshow of performed masculinities rather than a more fundamental, psychological exploration of what produces them. The most compelling character is the youngest Roman brother, Edmund (Stuart Thompson), who fails to live up to expectations of manliness, but his story is given frustratingly little time on stage. As such, Birch fails to fully convey an original take on her subject matter in this two-and-a-half-hour whirlwind of a story.

Despite this, it’s a compelling watch: the staging is gorgeous, with Merle Hensel’s stunning revolving platform being used to great effect in combination with movement director Hannes Langlof’s careful choreography. Lee Curran’s moody lighting provides an especially atmospheric quality to the first half of the play and, together with Benjamin Grant’s sound design, greatly aids the depiction of a tragic suicide in the first act.

Ambitious and sprawling, Alice Birch’s play is a fascinating experiment in form, though perhaps this is also its weak point. While its engagement with masculinity ultimately feels more descriptive than analytical, ‘Romans’ is an exciting watch.

ENGLISH KINGS KILLING FOREIGNERS

Soho Theatre

★★★½

“Thought-provoking and supremely relevant”

ENGLISH KINGS KILLING FOREIGNERS

Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 22nd September 2025

by Lola Stakenburg

Photography by Harry Elletson

Previously reviewed at Soho Theatre venues:

ENGLISH KINGS

ENGLISH KINGS

ENGLISH KINGS

ROMANS: A NOVEL

Almeida Theatre

★★★½

“Birch’s experimentation in form is carefully considered and exciting”

ROMANS: A NOVEL

Almeida Theatre

Reviewed on 18th September 2025

by Lola Stakenburg

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

ROMANS

ROMANS

ROMANS

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