Mass by Fran Kranz, The Donmar Warehouse Theatre, Earlham Street, London | until 6 June 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Richard Hubert Smith

Mass

by Fran Kranz

The Donmar Warehouse Theatre, Earlham Street, London | until 6 June 2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Powerful, shattering and brilliantly performed.”

Directed by Carrie Cracknell with the firmest of hands this splendidly acted play based on a 2021 film by Fran Kranz about the parents of a child killed in a high school shooting meeting the parents of the killer is as good as it gets. It is deeply moving as the different ways the parents have reacted to what happened are revealed – and also quite shattering to watch. It all starts with the people at the Church where the meeting, suggested by the therapist of one of the parents, is to take place fussing around about where the table should be, where people should sit, and one of the high school pupils is there to help. Then the parents arrive, sit themselves round the table and start to talk about what happened. Cracknell has placed the table on a revolve which moves imperceptibly so that one's view is changing all the time – had it been static this being a theatre with the audience on three sides what one would have seen would have been totally different. It is a way of doing what a film editor would do, shift what the viewer sees to affect their reactions, and it works perfectly. Gail (Lyndsey Marshall) and Jay (Adeel Akhtur) are the parents of Evan, one of ten children killed by Hayden, the son of Richard (Paul Hilton) and Linda (Monica Dolen) and the meeting is part of a process of helping come to terms with what happened, why Hayden, who killed himself after the shooting, did it and why, having killed the children he did not know had returned to find that Evan, the son of Gail and Jay, was still alive shot him again. The performances hold the attention throughout as the very different couples edgily talk about what happened, somehow never managing to explain why, until Linda finally reveals just how problematical their son Hayden had been and possibly that they should have tried to get him the help he needed. It is not the easiest of evenings, but it is one that does have something to say about how the killings affect the families of those who kill and get killed and how they face up to living in the aftermath.

Cast

Adeel Akhtar – Jay

Amari Bacchus – Brandon

Monica Dolen – Linda

Paul Hilton – Richard

Lyndsey Marshall – Gail

Rochelle Rose – Kendra

Susie Trayling – Judy

Creatives

Director – Carrie Cracknell

Designer – Anna Yates

Lighting Designer – Guy Hoare

Sound Designer – Dorothy Wharton

Composer – Katrina Rose

Dialect Coach – Brett Tyne

Movement Director – Ira Mandela Siobhan