Flush by April Hope Millar, The Arcola, Studio 2, Ashwin Street, London E8 | until 6 June 2026 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Jake Bush

Flush

by April Hope Millar

The Arcola, Studio 2, Ashwin Street, London E8 | until 6 June 2026

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review by William Russell

“Discover what goes on in the Ladies.”

If you ever wondered what ladies get up to when they disappear to the loo in some public venue then now is your chance to find out and in this play by April Hope Millar it proves a deeply dispiriting experience not helped by the fact that the cast could do with some elocution lessons.  Lines gabbled are lines gabbled. Here they are delivered by five actors playing some 16 young women on a night out at a m East London night club who have occasion to visit and use the toilet sometimes for the obvious reason, sometimes to repair their makeup, sometimes to escape a developing situation and sometimes in the hope of someone to talk to because it seems women do use the loo as a place of conversation. All that is fine and mildly interesting but if you cannot make out what is being said and distinguish between the speakers then the play simply isn't working. The actor's task is to convey the words they are given so that the audience can both hear and understand what they have to say and not just hear the noise they are making saying them. It is also when they have to play several roles, to play each one so that it is different from the others. When they get the time, or some peace and quiet, because people keep rushing in, using the loo, rushing out, having a crisis, the individual conversations are interesting and sometimes touching because at least one of them is in real trouble. April Hope Millar sees the ladies as a place of safety from the dangers that lurk in a world of rising misogyny, the frightening expansion of the manosphere, and the male loneliness epidemic. It is a point of view but equally there is also now a world in which the sisterhood is just as rampant and frightening a force. If the play were better spoken - every now and then one of the characters is actually very well done - the evening would be a better evening and  full of interest. First seen on the Edinburgh fringe last year all it does now is confirm what one always thought were the reasons why they went.

Cast

Augusta Griffiths – Layla, Noe, Alex, Asha

Jazz Jenkins – Billie

April Hope Miller – Pheobe, Laram Liv, Nut

Miya Ocedo – Flo, Tanya, Jade

Joanna Stratford – Maya, Heather, El, Jules

Creatives

Director Merle – Wheldon

Set & Costume Designer - Ellie Wintour

Lighting Designer – Jack Hathaway

Sound Designer – Yanni Nig

Composer – Jacana People

Movement Director – Kate Crisp