REVIEW: BU21 @ LOWER MARSH ARTS CLUB

🎭 BU21

📍 Lower Marsh Arts Club, 134 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London, SE1 7AE

🗓 Sunday 25th October 2026

⭐️ 4 Stars

TURBULENT TRAUMA AND SHARP WIT

Last night I headed to the Lower Marsh Arts Club (LowMAC) for the very first time since its rebranding from The Glitch, eager to check out BU21, which was being presented by Cellar Door Theatre Company.

When I know absolutely nothing about a show before seeing it, I like to keep it that way and go in completely blind, as I did here. I had gathered from the marketing imagery that the story had something to do with an aeroplane, and I honestly thought that it was perhaps about passengers on a flight.

How wrong I was! Instead of a mid-air drama, Stuart Slade’s script throws us headfirst into the harrowing, pitch-black aftermath of a fictional terrorist attack where a passenger plane is shot down by a surface-to-air missile directly over Fulham. It is an incredibly brave, confronting piece of writing that doesn't look to comfort the audience, but rather forces them to look at the messy, ugly reality of collective trauma.

The piece is presented in a slick mockumentary style - with occasional breakaways into a survivor's support group - with six characters addressing the audience directly for most of the performance. We were constantly shifting between characters, creating a fast-paced, multi-perspective tapestry of survival.

For me personally, I thought the writing of the female characters was a bit stronger than the male characters. They seemed to have much more depth and realism, whereas the male characters - especially the arrogant city boy Alex - seemed to have been slightly overwritten for shock value. Saying that, I feel that they were intentionally written to be disliked, and I can safely say that this was achieved.

As Alex, Jack Hinkley had the unenviable task of delivering some of the play's most provocative, cynical monologues. Some of the things that were being said by his character elicited genuine laughter from the audience, but for me personally, I'm not sure that was the correct reaction - though that tension is exactly what makes the play so prickly. Meanwhile, Adam Paul Brown gave us a deeply unsettling turn as Darren. Let’s just say Darren was giving strong Reform voter vibes, capturing that raw, uneducated, nationalistic anger and displacement with a performance that felt uncomfortably relevant and close to home.

However, the absolute strongest performance for me came from Ema Pasic as Ana. Watching her navigate the immense physical and emotional scars of the tragedy was completely transfixing, grounding the production's dark humour in pure, aching humanity. Grace Borer also provided a beautiful highlight as Floss, bringing a fragile, relatable innocence to the stage that offered a vital contrast to the cynicism around her.

Ultimately, the varied responses of these characters to the fictional attack at the centre of the story really shone a spotlight on the best and the worst of humanity. It felt strikingly familiar, not unlike our own collective and deeply fractured response to the pandemic back in 2020.

I loved the effortless fluidity that Karen Holley's direction brought to the piece. We were never left with awkward silences between each character's speeches, as is so often the case in this type of rapid-fire monologue show. The transitions felt like passing a torch in the dark. Holley also never forgot that the audience were seated on three sides of the stage in LowMAC's intimate basement, expertly using that tight space to make us feel intentionally uncomfortable with some of the intense, unwavering direct address elements.

In conclusion, Cellar Door Theatre Company have crafted a visceral, provocative, and tightly directed piece of fringe theatre. It is a show that doesn't care about making you feel safe, but in the hands of this capable cast and sharp direction, it succeeds in making you think long after you step back out onto Lower Marsh.

BU21 has now completed its run, but CLICK HERE to learn more about the company and to find details of future productions.

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 BU21 was gifted by Cellar Door Theatre Company, 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:

Grace Borer as Floss; Adam Paul Brown as Darren; Syama Rayner as Izzy; Hasan Shah as Clive; Ema Pasic as Ana; Jack Hinckley as Alex

CREATIVES:

Playwright - Stuart Slade; Director - Karen Holley; Producer - Brittany Rex; Intimacy Coordinator - Nora Iso-Kungas; Movement Director - Angela Botha; Lighting Designer - James Denny; Sound Designer - Steven Ramondt

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour 5 minutes, with no interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Explicit and raw eyewitness descriptions of the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack, severe physical trauma, and catastrophic injuries; Use of highly explicit, offensive language, foul language, and swearing throughout; Themes of racism, Islamophobia, classism, sexism, ableist language, including derogatory slurs and bigoted rhetoric; Depictions of severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), extreme anxiety, panic, and intense coping mechanisms; Dialogue involving suicidal ideation, death (including parental death and the death of a child), drug abuse, and sexual violence

AGE GUIDELINE:

14+

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