Nicola Walker at her best in a below par play

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at Royal Court

Perhaps most famous for Constellations, Nick Payne returns to the Royal Court for his latest play. The Unbelievers concerns the aftermath of the disappearance of a 15 year old boy, and is told in a series of flashbacks that some critics found confusing. In fact, not many reviews had a good word for this exploration of the devastating effect on the mother. Although Royal Court has pulled together a starry creative team, with Marianne Elliot directing and Bunny Christie designing the set, for most critics the show was saved by an exceptional performance from Nicola Walker.

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

Four stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Sunday Times’ Dominic Maxwell acknowledged some might find it ‘monotonous’ but declared: ‘I’m slightly obsessed now with this new play about trauma, grief, family and obsession. And I can’t imagine anyone making it more vivid than Nicola Walker does here. It’s a joy to spend time in her unrelaxed company.’

Time Out‘s Andrjez Lukowksi was bowled over by Nicola Walker, claiming this as her best stage performance yet: ‘its star gives a turn that is absolutely, magnificently, unfettered Nicola Walker. Her unique gift for proper nuanced acting filtered via an unshakeable deadpan grumpiness is harnessed to perfection as she plays a grieving mother whose sorrow and grief at the unexplained disappearance of her son has curdled into something darker and more disturbing.’ He had this insight into the play: ‘the out-of-order scenes feel like a sort of random anthology of grief for a while. But for my money they do eventually coalesce into something wonderful. (….) What happens (at the end) totally wrongfoots you, but it’s beautifully written and the point at which I realised this was really a play about human faith and the fundamentally unknowable nature of the world.’

Fiona Mountford in The i found much to like. She said Nicola Walker gave a ‘performance of blistering potency’. She described how ‘this family’s excruciating limbo-like state of non-grief is anything but a straight line; every social interaction down the years has an inescapably hollow sense of people small-talking over the immeasurable chasm of loss.’ She even liked the comedy which others were uncomfortable with: ‘Payne allows shards of dark humour to leaven the gloom’. And the set? ‘One half is the family living room, bleached of all colour and individuality in this new landscape of loss, while the other is a waiting area in which the actors sit slumped, a tableau vivant of isolation and despair, when they do not feature in a scene.’

Three Stars ⭑⭑⭑

‘It’s an intermittently engrossing, well-acted and slickly staged look at loss, grief and how closure is impossible without answers,’ wrote Alun Hood at WhatsOnStage, ‘However, in presenting the inexplicable and unfathomable, Payne’s writing and Marianne Elliott’s production tend to be as elliptical and inconclusive as the subject matter (….) it’s never less than watchable and when it’s good, it’s very, very good, although seldom does it seem to have the complete measure of its complex, emotionally-charged subject matter.’

The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe compared The Unbelievers with Nick Payne’s earlier Constellations: ‘this is a far more sprawling work, lacking the elegance and concision of its predecessor. The writing also, despite an astute and sensitive production from Marianne Elliott, has an air of contrivance.’ She liked the acting for being ‘raw and committed’, including ‘Walker, clenched, aridly funny, furious and utterly desolate, is fiercely compelling.’

Like others, Nick Curtis of The Standard was grateful for the performance of the lead actor, saying: ‘An astonishing performance of rage and grief from Nicola Walker is at the core of Nick Payne’s play’. As for the script, he declared: ‘This is a sincere, empathetic and surprisingly funny work … but it’s also relentless and lacking in tonal variety.’ He ended: ‘Payne’s determination to leave Oscar’s disappearance unresolved, observing the way it works and worms its way through the family over time, is a bold one. But it also gives this play a relentlessness that manufactured moments of comedy or awkwardness don’t fully defray.’

Holly O’Mahony for LondonTheatre focussed on the star: ‘Though the play is uneven as a whole (…) Nicola Walker delivers an astonishing, raw portrayal of a mother navigating a terrible sea of complex emotions (….) this is very much Walker’s show, and her performance alone is worth the ticket price.’ She described the set: ‘Bunny Christie’s set visualises the endless empty hours of waiting with a police reception room in view behind the main strip of stage – a sparse, abstract portrayal of the family home.’

The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish thought: ‘Payne’s tricksy chronology, shuttling across the years, means that vital dramatic depth goes missing in action.’ He noted: ‘even allowing for too many incidental details and moments of humour, there’s too indistinct a sense of the boy himself, his personality, his mates. Real-life cases of this ilk can break your heart. Despite the bravura lead performance, I was left unmoved.’

Two stars ⭑⭑

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar was unimpressed: ‘There are strong stand-alone moments but something feels off, with a flatness of tone and an injection of ridiculous comedy that chips away at the family tragedy, shrivelling its effect.’ She praised Nicola Walker and Paul Higgins but ‘as a whole, the emotional range of performances seems limited, maybe hemmed in by the jumping structure.’

Although he found Nicola Walker ‘thoroughly persuasive’, The Times’ Clive Davis decided that ‘by playing with the chronology…Payne makes it hard to share in the anguish of Miriam’s family…we’re left in a sort of limbo.’ He continued:  ‘the production, icily directed by Marianne Elliott, often strikes a jarringly comic note’

Critics’ average rating 3.1

The Unbelievers can be seen at the Royal Court Theatre until 29 November 2026. Buy tickets direct from the theatre

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