Actors praised in over ambitious play

Trafalgar Theatre

Two young Americans in a rut meet at an out-of-town Costco store. They form a relationship while lamenting the lack of opportunity and adventure in modern life. The critics were impressed by Heartstopper’s Joe Locke as Jake who has a degenerative disease, but reserved their highest praise for Ruaridh Mollica’s brooding Chris. The reviewers had reservations about US playwright Samuel D Hunter’s 2015 drama. They liked the poetry but found it fell short of its ambitious subject matter.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ★★★★

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish was taken by the play: ‘This isn’t a conventional gay romance, more a soulful meditation on the need for connection with someone worth trusting and a return to a spirit of possibility’. And the acting. Locke, he said, ‘is funny and touching as Jake…battling prejudice and Huntington’s disease. Locke draws us in with his fawn-like stare and scrawny vulnerability…Ruaridh Mollica is excellent too as Jake’s tougher co-worker, Chris’.

The Mail’s Patrick Marmion liked the acting, the play and the production: ‘it’s a slow burn, pivoting on emotional nuance and the pains of intimacy.’

3 stars ★★★

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe summed up: ‘It’s all very meticulously done, and the affection that gradually emerges between Chris and Jake is touching, but it just doesn’t seem quite enough. A languid, low-key chamber piece, in the end it leaves you unsatisfied.’

Dominic Maxwell of The Times felt the play didn’t quite come off: ‘There’s some gorgeous writing, but not enough plotting to stop the conceits from feeling like conceits. It starts to feel theatrical rather than engagingly lifelike.’ But he liked the acting: ‘Locke brings an unsentimental, compellingly awkward spirit of yearning…Ruaridh Mollica is equally excellent as the outwardly sturdier Chris, a working-class wannabe writer’. He concluded: ‘Clarkston is lovely, it really is. But it’s slight.’

Kate Wyver in The Guardian decided: ‘Despite the show’s overly expository dialogue, Clarkston gradually gives way to an intimate story about trying to make the best of the hand you’ve been dealt.’ ‘Mollica effortlessly breathes life into this hard-shelled character who doesn’t know how to talk to a man romantically’ ‘The script is often heavy-handed, with a backstory handed to us on a plate and little left unsaid.’ ‘Strangely, some of the audience sit on stage with the actors, their presence adding little but trip hazards.’

For Theo Bosanquet at LondonTheatre: ‘The cast deliver lively and empathetic performances, though it has the feel of a chamber piece that has been stretched beyond its natural size in the Trafalgar’.

Tom Wicker for Time Out noted: ‘Hunter’s writing is perceptive about the doubts that lurk beneath people’s hopes, but its aim at a grander poetry about life can fall short.’

Debbie Gilpin at BroadwayWorld expressed a similar sentiment: ‘The play is mostly of a serious bent, with some gentle humour thrown in along the way…It tiptoes around the edge of the profound, but never quite gets there.’ In common with quite a few reviewers, she commented on the cost of tickets: ‘A large chunk are priced at £100 (including fees) or more, which always feels scandalous for an interval-less play like this – regardless of the show’s quality.’

Alun Hood at WhatsOnStage declared: ‘The writing is subtle but blistering: a morose yet eloquent meditation on lives not well lived, with precious little hope, but an abundance of challenges. It’s blunt and bleak, and almost nothing happens, but the acting and the oblique humour ensure that it is engaging for the most part.’

2 stars ★★

Martin Robinson for The Standard lamented: ‘Maybe a better production would jerk the tears, but static direction by Jack Serio turns most scenes into a bit of a slog…and the most poignant moments become mawkish’. Most of the play, he said, ‘is pure American cheese, as natural as those bright orange balls stacked in their thousands on the Costco shelves.’

Critics’ average rating 3.1★

Value rating 31

You can see Clarkston at the Trafalgar theatre until 22 November 2025. Click here to buy  tickets direct

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