COCK – Hope Mill Theatre

When you strip away the peripheral elements of existence what are you left with? Remove the career that will end, the possessions that will gather dust and the places that will fade in the memory. What remains? Love, human relationships and a sense of self perhaps.

Mike Bartlett’s COCK is the theatrical equivalent of this exercise.

Strip it all away and lay bare the stark reality of life. Distraction-free analysis of identity, of sexuality, of power, of interaction. 

It all sounds so simple. Of course, it isn’t. It requires outstanding writing, light-touch – yet precise – direction and pitch-perfect performances. Check, check and check for HER and Up ‘Ere Productions. 

After a highly successful northern premiere last year at 53Two, the show is back in Manchester at the Hope Mill Theatre, before a mini tour to London and the Shakespeare North Playhouse. 

The production certainly feels accomplished and well-rehearsed but hasn’t lost any of the danger or jeopardy. The stakes still feel sky high.

John (Callum Ravden) and his unnamed husband, listed in the programme simply as M (John O’Neill), appear to argue constantly. The arguments seem insignificant, but to John they represent something existential about the relationship. He instigates a split.

When John’s indecision brings the couple back together, something has changed. John has slept with someone else. A woman, W (Hannah Ellis Ryan). 

Cock is presented in chapters. The first outlines the plot, the second reveals the woman and the third covers the cockfight of the title. The struggle for John’s affections. A fight that’s complicated by the arrival at an awkward dinner party of M’s father, F (Toby Hadoke).

Staged in the round, the audience surrounds the characters. Boxing them in to the fighting ring from which there is no escape.

There is no set (aside from four hanging lampshade lights), no props and next to no physical touch between the actors. Instead, the characters test and probe each other, and themselves, with implied gestures and words alone. 

And what words. This is theatrical writing at its very best. Heightened and philosophical, but brilliantly believable too.

O’Neill is versatile and outstanding as M. Funny, brutal and – in a set of perfect final lines – devastatingly vulnerable.

As one of the most exciting theatre producers in Manchester, Ellis Ryan just never misses. Her performance as W has to compete with three differing shades of masculinity and it does so amazingly.

You would pay to see a whole play about Hadoke’s F. The comedic timing and delivery you might expect from a stand-up of renown, but the pathos and intrigue were unexpected. Unexpected and fantastic.

The irony of the only named character being the one most unable to define themselves is not lost on anyone. It would be so easy for John to become irritating or pathetic. In Ravden’s hands that doesn’t ever happen.

One assumes this has been a labour of love for director Rupert Hill. It’s clearly been painstakingly choreographed and thought about in a way that laser focuses the audience’s attention on the themes and thoughts that Bartlett’s text explores.

There aren’t many chances to enjoy Cock, so to speak, but the focused intensity really needs to be seen. If you enjoyed several world-class plays a week for the rest of the year this would still be a standout.

Playing until 7^th June 2025. For tickets and more information: https://hopemilltheatre.co.uk/event/cock/. Then playing at Shakespeare North Playhouse from 17^th-19^th July 2025. For tickets and more information: https://shakespearenorthplayhouse.co.uk/event/cock/.

Reviewer: Peter Ruddick

Reviewed: 4^th June 2025

North West End UK Rating: