A Mirror by Sam Holcroft. The Almedia, Almeida Street, London, until 23rd September 2023.

3***: William Russell.

Running Time Approx. 2 hours, no interval

This is a dazzling confection of plays within plays about censorship which builds to a genuinely unexpected ending and has at its heart a fine performance by Johnny Lee Miller as the man from the Ministry of Culture, a man filled with bonhomie and menace in equal parts and for some reason always wearing black gloves. It could deserve more stars – it has received them – but somehow all the deceptions played upon the audience, who are persuaded to take part in the main one, started to feel just too contrived and what Holcroft has to say about the evil of censorship was really nothing new and had nothing to say about the pernicious world of woke in which it is not the state which censors but those who prevent people they do not approve of from speaking out. In societies where there is free speech they are probably the greatest threat to it as opposed to the state in totalitarian regimes although we did once have the Lord Chamberlain and before that a long history of state repression on what could be said. But director Jeremy Herrin has staged the goings on seamlessly and the players could not be bettered. We appear to be attending a wedding – Lee Miller is conducting the service, the audience, the congregation, stand for the entry of the bride, the groom has said his piece, the bride is about to say hers when there is a police raid. It is a fake wedding held so that people could gather to hear a banned play. One skin peeled from the onion as it were. But there are more. The “minister” turns out to be Mr Celik, head of the MInistry of Culture, the bride his new secretary, the groom a young man summoned to explain the play he has written, and the best man a playwright approved of by the regime. There is more to come and things do turn nasty. But there one stops as the surprises to come are vital for the play to make its points so must remain surprises.

Lee Miller, his pretty boy image long behind him, delivers a hugely impressive portrait of a man both charming and sinister, Michael Ward making a charismatic stage debut as Adem, the young soldier turnedcar mechanic whose first play causes all the trouble, creates someone convinced one has to write about real people and unwilling to bend to the demands of authority, and Tanya Reynolds as Mei, the bride who turns out to be Celik’s new secretary, petrified at first and then becomes totally involved in what is going on as she embarks a relationship with Adem, is stunning. But the great reveal – and the play is subtitled This Play is a Lie which, of course, the wedding is – doesn’t quite chill the blood as perhaps it should.

Cast

Sara Houghton – Wedding Guest.

Jonny Lee Miller – Celik.

Aaron Neil – Senior Officer.

Tanya Reynolds – Mei.

Geoffrey Streatfeild – Bax.

Miriam Wakeling – Musician.

Michael Ward – Adem.

Creatives

Director – Jeremy Herrin.

Set & Costume Designer – Max Jones.

Lighting Designer – Azusa Ono.

Composer & Sound Designer – Nick Powell.

Fight Director – Jonathan Holby.

Intimacy Director – Clare Foster.

Production Photograph – Marc Brenner.