Lion and Unicorn Theatre, London – until 7th February 2026
Reviewed by Celia Armand Smith
3***
Daughter by Adam Lazarus attempts to blend dark humour with discomfort in order to examine toxic masculinity and misogyny. Framed as a series of casual, conversational anecdotes told by a father, the beginning feels informal and upbeat. However as the monologue progresses, it turns darker and more violent.
The beginning of the play describes in some detail his wife’s prolonged labour and the traumatic delivery of a baby girl – his daughter. It then spirals into a strange and fragmented history of a man’s descent into misogyny and being frankly a terrible person. A joker with few redeeming qualities.
Throughout the play, the audience is loosely asked to participate but it is not clear whether the interactions are supposed to garner a response. People nervously answered questions and clapped along to music. Were we a therapy group or an imagined audience? Cristiano Benfenati has enormous amounts of energy and is undoubtedly a good actor holding court for 75 minutes on his own. The subject matter is dark and he portrays the mania of someone spiralling out well. Alexandra Rizkallah’s production was stripped back and simple – a man retelling his life story.
Misogyny and toxic masculinity are important topics, that goes without being said, however I don’t feel like this is the best vehicle for that conversation. So much of the world has changed since Daughter was written by Adam Lazarus and sadly this sort of character isn’t shocking anymore, it’s depressingly commonplace. Maybe it should be required viewing for men and boys as a warning of what could happen, but for me, it missed the mark.