The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

The Animal Kingdom at Hampstead Theatre

The Animal Kingdom at Hampstead Theatre | Theatre review
25 February 2022
Ben Flanagan
Avatar
Ben Flanagan
25 February 2022

In the Hampstead Theatre’s underbelly, a war is taking place. On a stage marked by iron bars that make out a house covered in foliage, a family sit in a group therapy session. Zoology student Sam (Ragevan Vasan) is in a rehabilitation centre after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. His therapist, Daniel (Paul Keating), has pulled Sam’s divorced parents and floundering sister into the same room, and across six sessions, Ruby Thomas’s play The Animal Kingdom will break down each of the five characters’ perspectives and assumptions about each other.

This structure gives a neat, deconstructed spin on the family play. Daniel takes on a meta-role of the audience, poking and prodding the family through revealing monologues. Director Lucy Morrison avoids the potential for static chatter by having the cast swap seats periodically, while often a scene will be interrupted by the halogen lights above the stage flickering to show a few beats skipping.

While the entire cast is very strong (Ashna Rebheru’s neglected sister monologue is a highlight, while Martina Laird captures the henpecking mother trope well), the food chain of this animal kingdom leads to Sam. A queer, nerdy, self-proclaimed outsider, his past is full of fascinating stories. He describes cutting himself in excruciating depth, saying: “Sometimes there’s no match for the mind except the body,” which Vasan’s performance accentuates through repetitive neck movements and twitchy caricature. Playing crazy is no mean feat, and the actor gives Sam a commanding agency. The play unquestionably hits its stride around the middle section, a three-hander as Sam and Daniel try to break down the almost-silent father, Tim (Jonathan McGuinness).

There’s a steady satire of bourgeois foibles that would be familiar to viewers of the HBO miniseries The White Lotus. Thomas’s script has the cast mouthing off about woke culture, gendered language and class shame. Their inability to connect is marked by an oppositional understanding of language. How are hippos supposed to communicate with birds, after all? The Animal Kingdom valiantly fights against the limits of its concept and is never anything less than engaging.

★★★★★

Ben Flanagan

Animal Kingdom is at Hampstead Theatre from 21st February until 26th March 2022. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Related ItemsAnimal Kingdomhampstead theatrereviewtheatre

More in Theatre

The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre

★★★★★
Natallia Pearmain
Read More

Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

“When you’re presented with different dilemmas in life, you respond accordingly”: Debbie Kurup on The Cher Show

Mae Trumata
Read More

2:22 A Ghost Story at Criterion Theatre

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

The House of Shades at Almeida Theatre

★★★★★
Csilla Tornallyay
Read More

Grease at Dominion Theatre

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

House of Ife at Bush Theatre

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Ben Flanagan

The Animal Kingdom

★★★★★

Dates

21st February - 26th March 2022

Price

£5-£20

Links & directions

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • More than Ever (Plus que Jamais)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Warpaint at the Roundhouse
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Tori and Lokita
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Moonage Daydream
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Stephen Fry enters the Radio Times Hall of Fame in conversation with Alan Yentob at the BFI Imax
    Cinema & Tv
  • Layering masters: How to make authentically delicious lasagne
    Food & Drinks
  • The Five Devils (Les Cinq Diables)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Moonage Daydream
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Crimes of the Future
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Decision to Leave (Heojil Kyolshim)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Boy from Heaven (Walad Min Al Janna)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • The Princess of Shoreditch in Shoreditch: “Ruth Hansom will only cook with the freshest and finest”
    Food & Drinks
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

“We never thought about writing a musical. But we fell in love with it”: Bryce Dessner of the National on scoring Cyrano
Tom Odell at Brixton Academy | Live review