Guess How Much I Love You? at the Royal Court Theatre

The magic of artistic expression often lies in its ability to allow an audience to either relate to, engage with, connect with, or be moved by its subject matter. At the Royal Court Theatre, Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Luke Norris has done just that. With his newest play, Guess How Much I Love You?, Norris and director Jeremy Herrin have crafted a devastatingly moving production about a relationship challenged by impossible choices.

The play presents the experience of an expecting couple who attend their 20-week ultrasound scan and soon discover that the future they had envisioned for themselves has drastically changed. The play tackles incredibly difficult and emotionally heavy themes with depictions and discussions of baby loss, grief, depression and self-harm. So much so that a content warning and self-care guide, which includes access to support organisations and charities, is provided to the audience by the theatre.

To place such harrowing themes under a microscope required a playscript that is thoughtful, honest, yet sympathetic, and harsh, yet filled with compassion and grace. Norris has done this beautifully. The writing is visceral and unflinching, allowing the audience to easily share in the emotions of the couple in question. The dialogue is quick and sharp, filled with conversations that frequently overlap and interject, just as they would in reality. The direction by Herrin indicates a complete, almost symbiotic understanding with Norris’s writing, with scenes impressively choreographed so every element feels carefully considered and orchestrated, yet never unnatural or overrehearsed.

The play is undoubtedly championed by the outstanding performances of its two leads, Rosie Sheehy (Olivier Award-nominee for Machinal) and Robert Aramayo (2026 EE BAFTA Rising Star nominee and 2025 British Independent Film Award-winner for I Swear). Respectively, they shine. Aramayo is excellent as a man desperately trying to support and be an anchor for the woman he loves, whilst simultaneously trying to not float away himself. Sheehy both physically and emotionally embodies the incomprehending despair and anger her character experiences. Her loss is a bottomless pit, like Alice, she has fallen into a hole, but instead of Wonderland, she has plunged into an abyss; and Sheehy portrays this flawlessly. The combination of the writing, the direction and the performances ensures that personal experience of the subject matter is not a requirement for the audience to be deeply impacted by the play’s exploration of its themes.

Just as important to the production’s success is the brilliance of the sound, set design and staging. The set design in each of the six scenes fantastically adds to the realism without being distracting. The music, most notably the repeated use of The Velvet Underground’s Pale Blue Eyes, is powerfully affecting and faultlessly utilised. And the frequent blackouts, whilst practically granted opportunities for set and costume changes, also admirably provide a way for the audience to pause and decompress between scenes.

With Guess How Much I Love You?, Norris, Herrin, Sheehy, Aramayo and the rest of the cast and production have created a theatrical triumph that will linger long after the stage lights go down. No doubt, it is a challenging watch, but one that is worthy of the attempt. It is bold, brutal and utterly brilliant.