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Scenes from a marriage: Jab @parktheatre

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Jab takes us back to five years ago when no theatres were open. Instead, it was staying at home watching endless television, clapping for the NHS, mask-wearing and hand washing. Against this backdrop, isolation from a married couple of 29 years slowly drives them apart and to the brink. But while it captures the period well, you want to know more about this couple on the edge. It's currently playing at Park Theatre after its premiere run at the Finborough Theatre last year.  James McDermott's play is loosely based on his parent's lives during the pandemic. It opens with Ann (Kacey Ainsworth) and Don (Liam Tobin) watching the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson inform the nation they need to stay at home. She is an NHS worker, and he runs a vintage shop. As she is an essential worker, she has work to do, but he is forced to stay at home while his shop is closed. There's also another source of tension in that Anne brings in all the income in the household. And so we watch ...

Lighter shades of grey: The Picture of Dorian Gray @Trafstudios


Something seems missing in this new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, currently playing at Trafalgar Studios. Missing is any sense of excitement or thrills you would expect from Oscar Wilde's story about a beautiful man's hedonistic descent.

The story was a scandal when it was first published. This new adaptation by Merlin Holland (Wilde's grandson) and John O'Connor, restores some homoerotic passages from the original manuscript. But as fascinating as they are, the overall piece is a bit of a damp squib.


It is perplexing that more was not made of the the added homoeroticism. There are no kisses, no sexual liaisons. It all talk and no show in this passionless production, despite the dialogue suggesting otherwise.

Guy Warren-Thomas as Dorian with his sharp and delicate features makes a fine Dorian, but the remaining three performers seem miscast. They also have the thankless task of playing over twenty roles and dragging a few pieces of furniture about the set.

If it is an economic necessity to have four cast members, it would be better to remove some of the superfluous roles so that the differentiation between characters did not have to rely on the type of hat or gloves the actor is wearing. Future shows that reduce casts should also seriously look at equal gender casting so we don't have to have suffer male actors playing pantomime dames in drama pieces.

Downstairs at the Trafalgar Studios is a great intimate space and at times it feels like they are acting in your lap. But with its short scenes and huge cast, perhaps this is a piece that might play better as a television movie... It is a pity that it has not been adapted to better suit its current space (and its economic confines).

The Picture of Dorian Grey is at Trafalgar Studios until 13 February.

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Photo credit: Production photo by Emily Hyland

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