Hampstead Theatre, London – until 25th October 2025
Reviewed by Celia Armand Smith
4*****
“Find someone across the room. Someone you don’t know. Look them in the eyes.Now don’t blink….” A woman in a white suit strides into the middle of the theatre and addresses the audience like she is a self help guru at a seminar. Instantly making everyone follow instructions, this is one of the most intense and unsettling openers to a play I have seen in a long time. She is a loud and persuasive voice that we learn is the intrusive voice which overwhelms protagonist Richie (Nathan Clarke). The Billionaire Inside Your Head is the debut play by Will Lord and confronts head on what it is like living with OCD. Not the kind of OCD which many people think of where you’re tidy or a bit of a germaphobe. This is the OCD where you have distressing, intrusive thoughts that create obsessions around those thoughts which you have to repeat because if you don’t there will be repercussions.
Richie and Darwin (Ashley Margolis) are best friends who work in the cabinet-filled basement of a debt recovery company. They are on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder but Richie has dreams of becoming the next Elon Musk. Darwin is an affable weed smoking guy who doesn’t seem to care much for work and only got the job because his mother, Nicole (Allison McKenzie), is CEO. Richie on the surface is put together and has big dreams, he just needs to find someone who will invest in his “ideas”. Darwin has no apparent career aspirations and has concerns about the way his friend deals with situations. The voice behind Richie’s intrusive thoughts also happens to take the form of Darwin’s mother, Nicole. As the story unfolds and we learn more about both Richie and Darwin, we come to understand why she is both the object of Richie’s desires and also the goading personification of his mental health struggles. A dual role of two formidable women which McKenzie plays with an icy precision.
Janet Bird’s set is sparse with papers and desks that fly around the room. James Whiteside’s lighting which ripples and flickers when the voices start to dominate. Lord’s writing on OCD is strong and clear, in part because he himself has dealt with obsessive thoughts and compulsions. The overall narrative could have been a bit tighter, but the cast are wonderful and Clarke and Margolis have a sweet and engaging relationship even when it is truly tested.
The Billionaire Inside Your Head directed by Anna Ledwich is a beautiful and layered observation on mental illness and how it can affect people day to day, superbly acted by a brilliant cast. An excellent debut play from Will Lord. I can’t wait to see what he does next.