FringeReview UK 2026
Heart Wall
Bush Theatre
Genre: Comedic, Contemporary, Costume, Drama, New Writing, Short Plays, Theatre
Venue: Bush Theatre
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
Kit Withington’s Heart Wall which premieres at the Bush Theatre directed by Katie Greenall till May 16, is never quite what it seems. In its 110 minutes of often funny slow duets and brief scenes, it ends with a memorable set-reveal: the place and revenants of mourning.
The poignant final scene is one of the most remarkable reveals in recent theatre, and makes this play an absolutely compelling must-see.
Review
“This is a surprise” says Dez to his daughter who suddenly turns up back at her north-west home town unannounced. Franky, nearing 24 and an architect in London, is looking for her rabbit; which she presumes dead. But it’s more complicated than nonplussed parents. Both with Schrodinger’s rabbit and the shared grief underlying the visit. Which isn’t quite what you’d think. Kit Withington’s Heart Wall which premieres at the Bush Theatre directed by Katie Greenall till May 16, is never quite what it seems either. In its 110 minutes of often funny slow duets and brief scenes, it ends with a memorable set-reveal: the place and revenants of mourning.
Heart Wall is set mainly in Hazel Low’s exquisitely detailed The Sun Inn (her equally sharp-eyed costumes include a silver puffa); with pub lights with spotlit home scenes all lit by Simisola Majekodunmi. With pub sounds and far more distant natural ones are sculpted by Mwen there’s an essential aural storytelling too. It’s intimate yet at the start members of the audience have volunteered for a karaoke spot, and there’s a couple in the play too (cast-members only this time). This north-west-bar inclusiveness is an enormously entertaining – and energising – tradition stretching back to Two (currently playing at Park Theatre). It tips forward attention to the very different feel of the play as it unfolds.
Franky (enigmatic and querulous in Rowan Robinson’s performance), baffles her old friends barman Valentine (an equable and beautifully understated Aaron Anthony), grandson of soon-to-be-oldest-pub-owner-in-the-world Eileen; and schoolfriend Charlene (Olivia Forrest, who shows Charlene as ebullient and naturally acclimatised, more understanding than Franky of the world Franky constructs round herself). They’re sympathetic but as Franky turns a weekend into a week, then a month, they start asking questions.
Franky’s father Dez (Deka Walmsley, baffling an edge of disquiet, subdued yet breaking out in surprising ways) is perplexed and evasive about the rabbit. He takes very hot baths and blisters his skin. He’s not coping and his wife and Franky’s mother Linda (Sophie Stanton, brisk, distant, and layered in her apparent withdrawal), is spending time with her own mother. Or, as it turns out living a parallel life since Dez has withdrawn. He keeps trying to talk to Eileen at midnight, hammering on the pub door. But Eileen is bedridden and never appears.
Franky nonplusses Linda, who’s never at home and asks why Franky’s returned when she has a job and boyfriend (whose calls go unanswered). Withington unfolds a complex mothering – reluctantly of Franky to her self-neglecting father, of Linda attending to him on a few occasions, revealing just how much he withdrew over the years; and the resentment between mother and daughter blocking free expression of feeling, always refracted through a world where Franky stumbles on items in her old room that aren’t hers. Withington shows that when emotions are resolved it’s away from home. Linda and Franky only finally break through in the pub, before a particular energising moment.
Valentine’s surprisingly patient with everyone including Franky, who tries gambits of her own. There’s moments early on when you consider if we’re in a kind of 2:22 world, and at some existential level, perhaps. It’s hardly a spoiler to note these five characters are real enough, but ghosts tease us. As patience peels back and Valentine tries delivering truths, he’s distracted by a leaking pub, a grandmother needing attention and a return to Ireland he humours Eileen with.
Charlene delivers truths of her own. As Franky tries returning home, setting up a flat (she proposes one with Franky) she’s exposed to her own illusions about the past. Charlene is not only happy where she is, she knows Franky no longer belongs. And in a displaced sense does Franky even feel she belongs to her own family?
Though Heart Wall compels, it has to be admitted its occasionally funereal pace draws out about 15 minutes too much. This works to a degree – the superbly-written dialogue’s zingy and gritty, full of heart, wit and truth. There’s more than beer, bant and batter: the truth’s often very funny. By contrast you’re compelled to tease out the unsaid and it seems unsayable. Franky’s displacing something, but then her parents are too, and everyone seems withholding home truths that have to land somewhere. The obvious answer’s not quite right either.
Manchester-based Withington proves a revelatory force, a dramatist with much to say and (that one caveat aside) an enormously skilful way of delivering it. . The cast are uniformly excellent. And the poignant final scene is one of the most remarkable reveals in recent theatre, and makes this play an absolutely compelling must-see.
Movement Director Mateus Daniel, Costumer Supervisor Esther Taylor, Casting Director Jatinder Chera, Production Dramaturg Ryan Hay, R&D Dramaturg Ellie Fulcher,, Dramatherapist Wabriya King, Vocal Coach Joel Trill, Makeup & SFX Artist Katie Grist.
Production Manager Chloe Stally-Gibson, CSM Chloe Wilson, ASM Rhea Cosford, Stage Management Aino Teppo,Photo Credit: Harry Elletson.
