By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 120 minutes (without interval) UPDATE: This production transfers to the Trafalgar Theatre for 13 weeks from 22 January 2024 Tickets

WHEN?: Saturday 19 August, opens 23 August and runs through 23 September 2023

You join us at the wedding of Leyla and Joel as this play-within-a-play-within-a-play about the power of creating a narrative to perpetuate power begins.

• Read on for reasons including how the audience were asked to behave as if at a wedding during this production

But this is no ordinary wedding – the participants are actually players in a show reflecting on the story of Adem, given idealistic life in his fine stage debut by BAFTA nominee Micheal Ward, who submits his debut play to the Ministry of Culture in an unspecified land.

The Ninth Floor is a journalistic account of the tough lives led by those in Adem’s building, is flagged as problematic by the Ministry and Adem is invited in for a meeting with a senior civil servant.

Celik, played memorably by Jonny Lee Miller (film T2: Trainspotting) complete with leather gloves worn at all times, perhaps surprisingly sees promise in Adem’s writing style despite the subject matter and urges the former soldier to try his hand at an inspirational story that would better fit the state’s propaganda narrative.

Adem is the titular mirror with his verbatim accounts of his conversations with Celik shining light on the hypocrisy of a man who does not see himself as a censor but instead as someone who is nurturing the talent of writers who can perpetuate the stories and narratives that the state wants to tell.

Sam Holcroft’s new play directed by Jeremy Herrin is an interesting investigation of free speech and elsewhere Sex Education‘s Tanya Reynolds plays initially naive and shy Mai, Celik’s new recruit, who is green to theatre and at first appreciates Celik’s less rigorous approach than she was expecting.

We also meet famous author Bax (Geoffrey Streatfeild, The Way Of The World, Donmar) who is revered for his debut work eulogising the unseen acts of the downtrodden but honest and true common man but who is struggling to repeat his success.

Two hours without an interval is a long time and A Mirror just about justifies this form because perhaps a break would allow the audience opportunity to question the conceit of being caught up in a mock wedding staged to put on an illegal show which could be raided by police at any time.

The woman sitting next to me in the audience whispers: ‘Don’t ever trust a man wearing leather gloves.’ to me at 1 point during the action referring to Lee Miller’s character choice of handwear and there are several neat plot twists towards the end of this new play that we will not reveal.

Ultimately A Mirror shines a light on the threat of journalism to corrupt government where storytelling is seen as propaganda and it is thrilling to be part of an audience where the spectacle of standing up to a regime where Shakespeare is banned is played out before our very eyes.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Almeida Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen a show starring Jonny Lee Miller or at the Almeida Theatre? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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