By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Saturday 11 October, opens 16 October and runs through 29 November 2025 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (no interval)

Walker (Unicorn, Garrick Theatre) plays mother Miriam Wright whose teenage schoolboy son has gone missing and is determined to leave no stone unturned to find him.

• Read on for reasons including how those hoping this might repeat the West End transfer and awards success of the recent Giant may have a long wait

Miriam is recently separated from her 2nd husband Paul (a nervy Paul Higgins, Romeo and Juliet, Almeida Theatre) and the investigating police want to know how their son was reacting to the news of the split.

Miriam has 2 other children – Ella Lily Hyland’s Mags is about to drop a bombshell and Alby Baldwin’s half sister Nancy is having problems with their girlfriend.

Director Marianne Elliott (COCK, Ambassadors Theatre) gives us a simple table and chairs centre stage where much of the action takes place in Miriam’s front room and at the back, as if glimpsed through patio doors, characters awaiting their turn to appear sit with their backs to the audience.

Walker is 1 of this country’s finest actresses and here plays an everywoman over the course of many years who simply won’t give in and attend a memorial in her son’s memory but is ready to follow an unlikely social media lead to Belgium instead.

The Unbelievers is a new play by Nick Payne (Constellations) about the lengths we go to for those we refuse to forget and explores a fractured family dynamic including Miriam’s 1st husband, a reformed alcoholic now a vicar, who allows her to explore her faith while continuing her search.

Daughter Nancy’s new girlfriend believes in the paranormal and encourages Miriam to undertake a seance to see if the spirit world can unlock any hidden clues about the increasingly fraught mother’s child’s whereabouts. 

Constellations used multiple potential realities to re-tell scenes and the storytelling here is non-linear so we’re never entirely sure how long has passed since Miriam’s son’s disappearance, whether it is hours, days or years, reinforcing our empathy with her malaise.

Walker is always good company and The Unbelievers is occasionally funny despite its dark material which has an obvious real-life parallel often not out of the headlines and particularly not so as we’re writing this.

But we didn’t find it as pleasing, insightful or illuminating as Constellations and those hoping this might repeat the West End transfer and awards success of the recent Giant at this very venue might find their wait for news as long as poor Miriam’s.

• Main pictures via Facebook by Brinkhoff Moegenburg courtesy Royal Court Tickets
• Have you seen a Nicola Walker show before or read a book of his and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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