By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Monday 25 August, runs through 27 September 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (without interval)

A war correspondent in Ukraine blames himself for the maiming of his photographer, is demoted and sent to interview a New York influencer turned actress he has little interest in.

• Read on for reasons including how these are 2 people going at each other who it’s difficult to muster much empathy for

Actress Katya, played with conviction by Paten Hughes, offers to exchange a story on camera with Robert Sean Leonard’s frazzled journalist Pierre that nobody knows for 1 that her counterpart has never told.

Interview was originally a 2003 Dutch film that was remade 4 years later starring Steve Buscemi as the journalist and Sienna Miller as the interviewee and is adapted here by director Teunkie Van Der Sluijs.

Writing in the programme, the University of Kent’s Margherita Laera says: ‘By injecting a healthy dose of feminism into the mix, Van Der Sluijs invites us to ask what really matters and reconsider ideas about power, gender and truth.’

We’ve not seen either film and welcome this re-imagination to give more agency to the woman in what is a 2-hander pivoting around the interview form and allowing the viewer the chance to see both sides of verbal combat.

We remember Leonard fondly from film Dead Poets Society and he’s a Tony winner playing a largely unsympathetic character here who is 3 months sober and wracked with guilt about his own daughter’s death at a similar age to Katya.

The influencer turned actress is quick to turn her camera on the journalist as she broadcasts live to her millions of followers and the journalist reminds her that the size of her audience is no indicator of its actual value.

Katya claims to be from Georgia but mistakenly gives Armenia’s Yerevan as the location of her birth leaving us to wonder exactly who is telling us the truth and how much?

Interview is the story of a middle aged white man losing control to a younger woman and abusing his power in an attempt to double cross her.

The final twist however isn’t as surprising as it thinks it is, the play’s theme really isn’t anything radical and these are 2 people going at each other who it’s difficult to muster much empathy for.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Riverside Studios Tickets
• Have you seen a Robert Sean Leonard performance before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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