Royal Theatre, Windsor – until 9 March 2024
Reviewed by Joanna Huggett
5*****
It was a delight to watch the opening night of “Closure” written by Catherine O’Reilly and Tim Churchill at the Theatre Royal Windsor.
The play takes place entirely within the living room of Emma (played by Roxanne McKee) and Josh Carlisle (played by Joseph Thompson) of their remote country house. Emma has invited her parents Libby (Susan Penhaligon) and Henry Kennedy (Peter Duncan), her sister Becca (Jemma Donovan) and Becca’s new plus-one Alex (Christopher Jeffers) to join them for dinner and drinks (but mostly drinks).
The superbly designed stage portrays a beautiful country manor, somewhere out in the sticks, where Emma and Josh have hidden themselves away for far too long and Emma spends her days painting – although what she has been painting will have to be revealed at some point during the story.
As the story unfolds, we learn why they’ve been so distant and what other secrets the family has been keeping from one another. Underneath it all, the story is about getting closure and what lengths Emma, Josh and her family would go to, to achieve that.
There are some occasional interactions with Henry’s former colleague Graham, played by Marcus Adolphy, who ultimately joins them for the cliff hanger of an ending.
The story is a thriller, but there’s also a lot of comedy, a lot of drinking and so many plot twists that will you won’t really know what the story was about until the very end.
A very entertaining evening in Windsor, not to be missed.