IN THE PRINT

King’s Head Theatre

★★★★★

“biting, bold and flexes some real theatrical muscle”

Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky’s taut 90 minute political thriller, ‘In The Print’, delivers a riveting reimagining of the 1986 Wapping dispute, diving into the fight for survival between union leader Brenda Dean and media titan Rupert Murdoch. Cutting straight to the core of this complex moment in time, Khan and Salinsky transform political machinations into gripping theatre.

Mere months after the miners’ strike collapses, thousands of Fleet Street print workers face redundancy as Rupert Murdoch ruthlessly overhauls the industry. Standing with them is steel spined Brenda Dean – the first female leader of a major British union. But Murdoch’s tactics tear the unions apart. Can the workers hold out, or is history doomed to repeat?

Khan and Salinsky, long-time masters of political satire, deliver a smouldering script. The crafting is exquisite, gradually exposing layers of scheming until you’re no longer sure where you stand. The balance of tension and clarity is spot on, drawing you deeper into the mire without losing you. The characters are deliciously complex, revealing flaws and vulnerabilities alike, shot through with wicked wit. Ultimately, the play asks who controls the narrative, crystallised in a moment of theatrical genius when Dean’s voice is abruptly torn away. Slow burn theatre at its finest.

Award winning director Josh Roche proves how much power lies in restraint. With pared back lighting, costume and set, Roche’s direction homes in on the political power play, teasing out the reactions and reversals woven through the script. The tension builds and releases with finesse, culminating in a thrilling climax. The blocking never forgets the audience, and crowd scenes cleverly spill into the auditorium. A touch more fire would make Dean’s eventual glimpse through Murdoch’s eyes a sharper pivot point, but it all moves with an effortless rhythm, perfectly in step with the writing.

Peiyao Wang’s set and costume design reconstructs a vast factory floor, complete with striking ink stains and ghostly traces of the recent past. A smart visual beat sees Murdoch dress down at his most vulnerable, while Dean remains armoured in her pearl clad power suit throughout. Though, interestingly, Dean’s missing her signature blonde curls. Sarah Spencer’s sound and score quietly elevate each scene, conjuring anxious workers or furious strikers with precision, and tightening the tension without drawing attention to itself. Josh Gadsby delivers subtly sculpted lighting, moving us between characters and spaces with effortless clarity.

The cast is consistently compelling. Claudia Jolly nails Dean’s understated power, every gesture and glance landing with fluid naturalism – Jolly is commanding, razor sharp and absolutely not to be messed with. Alan Cox brings a delicious slipperiness to Murdoch, dripping with charm before dropping a killer one liner. We even glimpse the man behind the myth before the fog of war rolls in again – a masterful touch. Alasdair Harvey, Georgia Landers, Jonathan Jaynes and Russell Bentley deliver each of their roles with such clean distinction you forget they’re multi-roling at all.

Khan and Salinsky’s ‘In The Print’ is biting, bold and flexes some real theatrical muscle. Catch this limited run while it’s still up close – like Murdoch, it feels destined for a bigger stage.

IN THE PRINT

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed on 30th March 2026

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Charlie Flint

IN THE PRINT

★★★★

“a fascinating piece much like the women it presents”

If you’re intrigued by the idea of particle physics presented as a cabaret show involving four energetic performers stepping in and out of a variety of roles, Emma Howlett’s Aether is for you. Sixty minutes on the subject of an inscrutable universe will also give you a glancing introduction to female scientists from Hypatia in ancient Alexandria to Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter. Meanwhile Sophie, the high powered PhD student and our protagonist, attempts to juggle particle physics and a troubled relationship with her physician girlfriend in the present day.

The feminist angle to Aether is important because it highlights perennial problems faced by female scientists working in fields dominated by men. From Hypatia’s brutal murder in ancient Alexandria to undeserved obscurity for ground breaking discoveries in recent times, women’s discoveries have been ignored or even erased. Sophie, on the other hand, has begun her career as a physicist by talking herself into a prestigious research programme that has included time at CERN, the place where every ambitious PhD student hopes to work. She is further encouraged to keep going by her tough and determined supervisor, even when Sophie is tempted to quit because she isn’t finding any answers in the enormous amounts of data she has to work through. But is it the unanswerable nature of the questions she is asking about the universe the real reason Sophie wants to quit, or is it her faltering relationship with her girlfriend? It’s not a dilemma that male scientists have admitted to in the past. Nor is it likely to gain much sympathy in any academic field where the stars are on track to win a Nobel Prize early in their careers.

There’s almost too much packed into the sixty minutes, even with the inventiveness of performers Gemma Barnett, Sophie Kean, Anna Marks Pryce and Abby McCann. Aether is part lecture, part drama. Some of the women we’re introduced to, such as magician Adelaide Herrmann, or medium Florence Cook, fit uneasily alongside a detailed explanation of Plato’s Cave, and a list of quarks to memorize. The show dazzles with the sheer amount of information presented, but there’s a risk of audience burnout. It’s not hard to identify with Sophie’s description of protons being hurled out of a Large Hadron Collider. Perhaps a longer play, and a slower pace with the lecture parts, might give the audience a chance to catch up. It is about important themes, and Sophie’s ambition, like that of playwright Howlett, deserves a chance to find the answers that every woman working in a difficult field deserves.

This play is a fascinating piece much like the women it presents. If it sends you out of the theatre with more questions than answers, don’t feel disappointed. Aether reminds us that good theatre, like good science, is worth the work it takes to understand. There’s a large universe out there, just waiting to be explored.

Tag Archives: Sarah Spencer

IN THE PRINT

★★★★★

King’s Head Theatre

IN THE PRINT

King’s Head Theatre

★★★★★

“biting, bold and flexes some real theatrical muscle”