Shellshocked – Queen’s Mill, Castleford

Writer/Director: Philip Stokes

Shellshocked began life as a success at Edinburgh Fringe and, after appearing at Leeds Playhouse, is now touring small, often ad hoc venues such as Queen’s Mill as part of Red Ladder’s Local programme. The production makes few demands on manpower –  playwright/director Philip Stokes, two actors and a technician called Tom – but the tiny acting platform is full of well-chosen furniture, notably a completely blank canvas, and the impact of the play is puzzlingly powerful, grabbing the attention of the sizeable audience.

The later stages have their share of melodrama, though they also contain speeches that go to the heart of both characters, but for much of the play we are gripped by the ever-changing relationship between the two characters and, especially, the truth of the character of the painter, Mr Lupine, who shifts gear minute by minute. The mystery underlying his sudden changes is reminiscent of early Pinter.

Wesley has come for a job as apprentice to Mr Lupine. The young man has emerged from the Great War with shell shock, added to which his father died when he was at the front. So now he has his mother and three sisters to support. He is polite, at first very reticent, and clearly ill at ease with Mr Lupine’s behaviour. He insists on the young man calling him “Mr Lupine”, not “sir”, then reverts to “sir” for no obvious reason; he is argumentative, disputing what Wesley says, then becomes delighted with him, taking him on an extremely generous rate; he plies him with brandy which Wesley, having at first refused, drinks, becoming more voluble as time passes; he provokes a violent reaction by telling him he has burnt his portfolio, later retracted, later still found to be true.

Above all, periodically, he seems to be trying to lure Wesley into sexual activity, saying he should take his clothes off to model, addressing him affectionately (in between moments of aggression), massaging his shoulders, this last producing a mild protest from Wesley. But the truth is harsher than Lupine making homosexual advances. These are simply to unbalance the young man’s responses. His malice surfaces in his attitude to Wesley’s father who always seemed to be better than Lupine who is semi-crippled with polio and is now focussed on Wesley who was fit enough to go to war. The final ten minutes are a confrontation the end of which we can’t predict, but feel it’s bound to be tragic.

Lee Bainbridge relishes the Grand Guignol of Mr Lupine, surprising us constantly by his fury and his laughter, sharing his urbanity and his venom, never quite understood. Jack Stokes is the perfect foil, to begin with saying little, but registering much unease and suggesting the inner suffering, then gradually revealing more of himself, culminating in the passion of the later stages.

A beautifully judged sound tape, comprising both effects and musical underscoring, completes a remarkably accomplished evening.

Reviewed on 11 September 2026