Writer: Sam Holcroft
Director: Feiyang Yang
Sam Holcroft’s A Mirror is a grippingly ingenious play which debuted at Almedia Theatre in 2023. And it’s in pretty good hands at Tower Theatre, which almost always seems to be able to come up with the goods.
We’re in a quasi-dystopian, unnamed country in which art is tightly controlled by the state whose enforcement methods include slamming hands in doors to break the bones and “re-education camps”. But the “Ministry of Culture” purports to be a civilised, enlightened place to which, of course, all new plays have to be submitted.
It is, however, a world in which nothing is as it seems. The audience is effectively watching the action through the titular mirror and constantly unsettled by the unexpected. We, the audience, are initially (and quite elaborately) styled as wedding guests, but it’s a sham. What these people really want to do is to stage an illegal, subversive play exposing the regime. So they do – with occasional pauses while they check outside for police. They quickly shunt the wedding gear out of the way at top speed and create a set from it. It’s a clever device, as is the ending when we finally learn what’s really happening and get a superb cameo performance from Helen McGill as the cunning, commanding, sinister senior officer.
There are some very pertinent questions at the heart of this play. What is art and what is its purpose? Should it tell the literal, verbatim truth about, for example, war? Surely a play shouldn’t be myth-based nationalistic propaganda as Bax’s (Peter Molloy – good) is? But the play in which Adem (Cameron Jones – pleasing) attempts to write something excoriatingly accurate and truthful is, of course, culpably unacceptable.
Four actors, who work impressively together, sustain A Mirror for 90% of its length. Georgie Ashby is outstanding as Celik, playing a role within a role within a role. She does disdain, distance, camaraderie, loftiness and anxiety all with total conviction. There’s a hilarious scene in the acting in Bax’s play. It comes with a strong whiff of the Turkish Knight in a traditional mummers play, and Ashby is wonderfully funny. There’s excellent work too from Katie Frances as Mei, the uptight former soldier who gradually thaws – although it’s a cover for her real character, obviously. This play isn’t called A Mirror for nothing.
Despite the rather choppy lighting design and the occasional dip in pacing, A Mirror is certainly one to catch if you can.
Runs until 10 October 2026
