REVIEW: AN INSTINCT @ OLD RED LION THEATRE

🎭 An Instinct

📍 Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St. John Street, London, EC1V 4NJ

🗓 Wednesday 19th November 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A THRILLER WITHOUT A BEATING HEART

Hugo Timbrell's queer thriller has all the ingredients for a truly gripping and claustrophobic evening of theatre. With its remote cabin setting and a cast of three whose relationships are tangled and explosive, you'd expect the stage to be sizzling with dramatic tension. While the performances are unquestionably strong it's a shame the emotional core of this piece feels as cold and distant as the lockdown-era isolation it seeks to portray.

The cast truly delivers with what they're given. The performances are raw, polished, and perfectly capable of handling the script's numerous twists and turns. However, for me, the emotional stakes never quite land where they should. We see the paranoia and fear, but we don't feel the heartbreak or the genuine desperation.

It's a bit like watching a beautifully crafted but ultimately hollow scare film. The jumps are there, but the chill doesn't linger under your skin.

Ultimately it's quite hard to actually pinpoint what was missing from the show but I just didn't connect with the characters or the story. I didn't care about them at all, meaning that I wasn't bothered by the outcome of the story.

As I've mentioned, the performances themselves were glorious. I was especially impressed with Conor Dumbrell. You could really feel his boredom and sense of being trapped.

The Old Red Lion, with its intimate and atmospheric spce, is the perfect stage for such a story, and director Lucy Foster makes effective use of the small confines to enhance the feeling of being trapped.

As a bit of a self-confessed technical theatre nerd, I was highly impressed with these aspects of the production. Julian Starr's sound design and Caelan Oram's lighting design married together wonderfully, enhancing the story beautifully. You really felt you were in the room with the characters due to these elements.

But despite the stellar acting and production design, the script ultimately leaves us with a thriller that's all head and no heart. It's a solid night at the theatre, but lacks the deeper emotional investment to be truly memorable.

There's lots to love about this show and I genuinely struggled to settle on a star rating here. After an internal debate I decided that due to my mixed feelings, especially with the lack of an emotional connection, I felt that a star rating of three was the fairest.

AN INSTINCT continues performances at Old Red Lion Theatre until Saturday 6th December. Click here to check availability and to book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

My ticket for this performance of An Instinct was gifted by Chloe Nelkin Consulting who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

CAST LIST:

Conor Dumbrell as Max; Joe Walsham as Tom; Ben Norris as Charlie

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour 20 minutes, with no interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Abuse; Violence; Coercive control

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