As soon as you step into the Hen & Chickens Theatre, you’re immersed in the sticky world of Spare Room. A drunken girl flippantly tells you to “sit where you like”. Unconscious bodies slump over ratty furniture, grease-soaked pizza boxes line the floor, and dance music hums in the background. It’s an immediately familiar sight (shudder): a shared uni student house.
The action kicks off with sweet Jodie (Georgina Housby) turning up at the grotty pad with a suitcase and admirable optimism as she introduces herself as the new occupant of the spare room. She initially thinks she has female company in the house after seeing a ‘Mary’ listed as a housemate in the online ad, only to find out that’s merely a bizarre nickname for a bloke called Richard — making her the only girl in a house of four boys.
The first half of Spare Room plays out a bit like an episode of Fresh Meat with the worst aspects of the lads in The Inbetweeners chucked in for good measure. The four boys display various levels of toxic masculinity: adulterous gym rat Alex (Will Meadowcroft) is certainly at the upper end of the spectrum, spewing a persistent barrage of homophobic and sexist remarks, while the aforementioned neurodivergent Mary (Luke Dyer) displays more of a softer side between his jibes.
As group bonding quickly sends Jodie down a dangerous path of getting blackout drunk several nights per week, the tone shifts, with our protagonist battling feelings of fear and shame in between the debauchery. The whole play is performed in a naturalistic style, which makes the repeated motif of Jodie staggering to the front of the stage to highlight the blurred lines between one night and the next all the more affecting.
The cast is sublime. Tom Griffiths is the perfect charmingly sleazy Ben, Matt Underhill gets some beautifully harrowing moments to shine as Jack, while Dyer and Meadowcroft also get a nice chance to show a more tender side to Mary and Alex’s friendship.
But it’s Housby’s brilliant performance as Jodie that really helps this production soar. As we watch her transform from a bubbly girl eager to please into a slurring shell of who she once was, Housby’s subtly devastating facial expressions and increasingly limp movements are heartbreaking to watch. I won’t spoil the ending, but I can only say that I felt a deep pang of sympathy and anger for Jodie, as the toxic culture she’s immersed in is sadly all too familiar.
There’s definitely scope to expand the story of Spare Room. While I liked how much was left up to interpretation, I also would have loved deeper insights into characters such as Mary, who clearly had many interesting layers buried beneath his Monster Munch-loving goofiness.
It’s rare that a 60-minute ensemble play truly touches me, but I found myself thinking about Spare Room for a long time after leaving the Hen & Chickens Theatre. With its delicate balance of humour and quiet devastation, this is certainly one of my picks of the Camden Fringe.
Spare Room runs until 3rd August at Hen & Chickens Theatre, with tickets available at: https://camdenfringe.com/events/spare-room/
Reviewer: Olivia Cox
Reviewed: 1st August 2025
North West End UK Rating: