This Much I know by Jonathan Spector. Hampstead Downstairs, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London to 27 January 2024.

4****: William Russell.

“Bewildering but intriguing and well performed last play of the year.”

Three terrific performances make this somewhat puzzling piece by Jonathan Spector directed by Chelsea Walker well worth catching – but what it is all about remained at the end of the evening something of a problem. It seems to start off one thing and turn into another when Stalin’s daughter Svetlana arrives. It also arrives laded with award for its first production at the Auroral Theater in California so somebodies somewhere got the message. Actually it is about people who suffer from the legacy of their parents as the other characters include Harold a young student whose father is a white racist and Natalya a woman whose grandparents died in Russia knocked down by a car and who is afflicted by guilt for having knocked down a cyclist. Mixed up with this is Lukesh the University don with whom she is involved and the student who attends his classes. Spector one gathers from the programme – essential reading – is much influenced by the work of Dr Daniel Kahneman and the piece opens with Lukesh teasing the audience with a lecture about the cognitive complexities of decision making. We have been turned into his students. It all gets very complicated after that with the youthful actor who plays Harold having also to play some elderly Russians and the fact one is never quite sure whether the one playing Natalya is actually playing Svetlana. It may have been a technical glitz but I also spent some of Act 1 noting that the clock on the wall was not working and Act 2 wondering whether the fact it was now working was significant or they had noticed it during the interval and simply turned it on. Oscar Adams copes with his wildly different roles well, Natalie Kalmar does the same and Esh Alladi as Lukesh keeps it all moving with a splendidly stylish performance as he dips in and out of the action and turned don delivering a lecture but while I left slightly bewitched I was more bothered, bewildered and befuddled by this LaLa land import.

Cast

Oscar Adams – Harold.

Esh Alladi – Lukesh.

Natalie Klamar – Natalya.

Creatives

Director – Chelsea Walker.

Designer – Blythe Brett.

Lighting Designer – Bethany Gupwell.

Sound Designer – Holly Khan.

Video Designer – Duncan Mclean.

Movement Director – Michela Meazza.

Dialect Coach – Gurkiran Kaur.

Illusion Consultant – Scott Penrose.