Juniper Blood by Mikc Bartlett. The Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham Street, London WC2 until 04 October 2025, 3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner.

Juniper Blood by Mikc Bartlett. The Donmar Warehouse, 41 Earlham Street, London WC2 until 04 October 2025,

3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“Tedious state of the world play.”

Three act plays are unusual these days and this latest state of the nation, the world and mankind offering from Mike Bartlett is something of an endurance test as implausible people go on and on about ethical farming, chopping wood, surviving in the countryside when you are patently a town dweller to your bootstraps for what seemed like eternity. There is a hideous set by Ulz consisting of somewhere in act one for them all to meet at a rustic table to chat over the meal, and then, as armageddon advances, it turns into a place where wood gets chopped, trees get planted and the real grass seems to have grown while we are watching. The arguments about how man is busy destroying the planet are worth listening to, worth having as nations busily fail to agree to anything at multi-national conferences attended by experts and politicians wasting resources just by getting there, let alone being there. The six strong cast do their jobs very well and manage to hold one's interest – although the theatre mouse that had a stroll across the stage did detract the attantion of some – but Bartlett has been here before, notably eight years ago in Albion, a state of the nation play set in an English country garden and this return to the topic is far less effective than that. Ruth, a 40 something divorcee, and her partner, the not very chatty Lip, have decided to turn his father's farm, which he has inherited into an ehtical, profitable business – as you do, although she appears to do no work and he stands about a lot. They are visited by her daughter and boyfriend who turns out to be an expert on the environment – they then are not seen again until Act Three. There is also a neighbouring farmer who makes a pass at Ruth and in Act Three Lip, who has stood about a lot, starts to chop wood – his skill with an axe as he demolished logs is impressive – and the new world of living off the land but not destroying it has arrived. Not everyone stayed to the end to find out.This is not the fault of the cast. Hattie Morahan endures her life on the farm with stoicisim and, even if she is asked to create an impossible to believe in character, manages to create someone you watch, Jonathan Slinger is nicely odious as the lecherous neighbour and Sam Troughton when his turn to actually say and do something as Lip gives an impressive performance. Buf there really are better places to be than watching this ambitious but ultimately deeply unsatisfactory play. There is plenty to talk about afterwards but there is nothing director James Macdonald can do to save the play from being implausible, tedious and a waste of an evening.

Cast

Terique Jarrett – Femi

Hattie Morahan – Ruth

Nadia Parkes – Molly

Jonathan Slinger – Tony

Sam Troughton – Lip

Creatives

Director – James Macdonald

Designer – Ulz

Lighting Designer – Jo Joelson

Sound Designer – Helen Skiera

Voice & Dialect Coach – Hazel Holder

Imtimacy Director – Anna Morrisey

Costume Supervisor – Zeb Lalljee