★★★★★

“continually manages to entertain and surprise”

How do you fit humanity’s 300,000-year existence on planet earth into an hour? Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote somehow do just that in their new musical ‘Hot Mess’, transforming the messy relationship between people and the planet into a toxic romantic relationship between ‘Earth’ (Danielle Steers) and ‘Humanity’ (Tobias Turley). It shouldn’t work as well as it does.

Steers immediately sets the tone with her stellar vocals as her character laments her ongoing singledom, having not found a species of ‘apex predator’ to her liking since the sexy short-armed T-rexes of millions of years ago. This anthropomorphic iteration of our planet is no ‘Mother Earth’ or mythic ‘Gaia’ – she is a millennial in a satin green nightgown with an endless stream of geological puns up her sleeve. Earth dances confidently around her stylised living room, an effectively layered set by Shankho Chaudhuri, complete with blue floors, green furniture, and lots of plants. In bursts Humanity: a white guy in gold-rimmed glasses and a sheepskin jacket, of course. Turley matches Steers’ outstanding voice as they whirl through an impressive array of musical styles. Co-orchestrators Godfrey and Joe Beighton have done a particularly good job of capturing the epic scale of this relationship in their pleasing electronic compositions.

As Humanity, Turley also stands out for his portrayal of the self-centredness, short-sightedness, and greed that leads to the inevitable breakdown of their relationship.

Intelligent and ambitious, Humanity’s quick development from hunter-gatherer to farmer to self–appointed architect-of-the-world is only possible because he has no qualms about exploiting his girlfriend, his ‘only home’, for her many resources (cue silly drilling innuendos). His adulterous trip to the Moon and unwarranted introduction of planes and cars, cleverly incorporated into the soundscape (Paul Gatehouse & Charlie Smith), drive Earth further to the edge, resulting in literal stormy weather, cleverly represented in Ryan Joseph Stafford’s light(n)ing design.

Naturally, the audience can see where the relationship will go from a million miles away, but ‘Hot Mess’ continually manages to entertain and surprise regardless. It transforms the climate crisis into a narrative of romantic fall-out so familiar that it allows the viewer to easily grasp some of the underlying issues that have caused it, pointing to humans’ essential solipsism and carelessness. In the end, Earth realises it does not need Humanity and kicks him out of her home, after which he finds refuge with a much more toxic partner, Mars. Despite that bleak prospect, you’ll be walking out of this show with a smile on your face.

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing”

‘This is My Family’ is a refrain repeated with such alarming frequency in this show, I started to hope it might actually hint at a much darker piece, which used ‘happy families’ as a veil for a seedy Mafia tale of subterfuge, criminality, and intrigue, expressed via showtunes. Alas, it did not.

It was, in fact, about an unremarkable, nuclear family from somewhere unspecified in the North of England in which 13-year-old Nicky (Nancy Allsop) wins a competition that grants her and her family any holiday of her choosing. Except her ideal family, as described in her application, is not so ideal: her brother (Luke Lambert) has become some kind of satanic incarnation of a teenager; her grandmother (Gay Soper) has burgeoning dementia and an affliction for arson; and her mother (Gemma Whelan) and father (Michael Jibson), who have been together since they were 16, are steeped in mediocrity and have grown indifferent towards each other. Tim Firth’s new play (or musical?) engages with all these topics but tends to neglect a nuanced exploration of them.

Firstly, and truly, one is reminded that good actors are wonderful artists. The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing. Allsop as Nicky is particularly charming, eminently watchable and sweet, and with a delightful voice. Whelan is also a standout as Nicky’s deeply frustrated mother, Yvonne.

This is my Family is nominally a musical. And yet, its status as such calls into question the framework and requirements necessary to earn its place as a musical. Because, surely, just sing-speaking constantly does not a musical make. A musical should really justify its songs: they have a reason for being: when speaking isn’t enough. Not when speaking is just not interesting enough. In this piece, dialogue and song became interchangeable and quickly indistinguishable, substituting memorable showstoppers for loosely spoken song. In all honesty, the only memorable bit of music is the aforementioned ‘this is my family’ line.

Set design (Chloe Lamford) was a standout: an initial shed-like house soon collapses, giving us a cosy interior. The switch to greener pastures in the Second Act was also a neat design choice.

In general, This is my Family is mediocre, but with first-rate actors. Whilst a play need not have a profound moralising conclusion, or solve the world’s most pressing problems, it ought to say something interesting, and with nuance. The plot is circuitous and often tedious, its twists predictable and its characters on the stock side. In its defence, it is light and fun, and the stakes are generally quite low. This may be a particularly palatable thing for theatre and audiences at the moment, given *gestures vaguely at everything* stuff. This is my Family is unimposing, gentle, and lightly comic, appealing to many a sensibility. However, its lightness came at the expense of subtlety and depth and is entirely devoid of a ‘showstopping number; a real showstopper’.

HOT MESS

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★★★★

“continually manages to entertain and surprise”

HOT MESS

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 22nd October 2025

by Lola Stakenburg

Photography by Helen Murray

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HOT MESS

HOT MESS

HOT MESS

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“The cast, across the board, is excellent, reaffirming their ability to shape and invigorate otherwise middling writing”

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 28th May 2025

by Violet Howson

Photography by Mark Senior

Last ten shows reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

THIS IS MY FAMILY

THIS IS MY FAMILY

THIS IS MY FAMILY

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