Jermyn Street Theatre – until 26th September 2026
Reviewed by Mike Linane
4****
A Slow Fire is not your normal, everyday play that you go to the theatre to see. The first act is a complete conundrum. Nothing is properly explained and it is left to the audience to try to figure out what is going on. I went to see this without reading anything about it beforehand so it left me somewhat confused by the time the interval came.
The set is that of some sort of manmade bunker but we are not told why the two men who inhabit it, Ashton and Reece, are living there. We assume there has been some kind of apocalyptical event on earth and that is where they have taken refuge. Are they the only people left on the planet? Why and how are they the only ones to have survived? What hope is there for their future? How do they cope on a day to day basis with regard to food and water? How do they prevent themselves from going insane in a world that has clearly already gone mad? These, and many more questions, I found myself asking as I watched this very intense piece of theatre.
The characters appear to change names and personalities as the play progresses. Parts of scenes are repeated over and over again. The character of Ashton is unwell and is unable to leave the bunker and so relies on Reece’s account of what has happened and is happening outside. Is Reece telling the truth or is he lying so as to keep Ashton in hiding?
This piece delves into what man needs to survive apart from food and water and what is important to him come what is possibly the end of the world. Hope is definitely one requirement, along with companionship and what about possessions from an outside world that no longer exists?
This is a very bleak play that demands your total concentration to try to work out what is happening. All is made much clearer in the second act which at times has you on the edge of your seats worrying about what you are watching and when you come out of the theatre at the end of the performance you are left in no doubt that you have just witnessed a very important, original and masterful piece of theatre.
Ross Gaynor is outstanding at Ashton, the sickly man who has built the bunker in the hope that he can survive the devastation outside. He gives a performance that has you gripped from the moment he first appears, and is ably supported by Ian Toner as Reece and Fionn Ó Loingsigh as Presley (a third man who appears to have also survived but what difference will his arrival have upon the two men who have lived together for several years now without seeing anyone else?)
This is an excellent play written by Tony and Olivier award winning Simon Stephens that demands to be see in its UK premiere. Stick with it and you will be richly rewarded if you do.