Dogstar- Hampstead Theatre

Up until a few months ago, I’d spent an entire life loathing the lore of polar exploration. Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton’s chilly endeavours had bored me throughout childhood and then soured over time. Blokey, egotistical, jingoistic nonsense dressed up as heroic propaganda and British pride. I was having none of it. There’s nothing brave about freezing to death ‘cause you wanna stick a Union Jack into an iceberg. Leave the Arctics alone, don’t drag the ocean floor, save the polar bears and CAN WE PLEASE stop the snow mountains from melting and flooding us into Armageddon?  

After reading Sara Wheeler’s Terra Incognita- Travels in Antarctica earlier this year, my perspective on the history of humanity’s polar bothering swung from eternally irritated to absolutely fascinated. Wheeler’s book was my gateway drug. She digs into the psychological torments of the explorers while examining her evolving mental response to the unique isolation and alien landscape. The Arctic can be dazzling enlightening and hellishly unhinging. Dogstar, a new play by Daisy Hall explores these themes via a creaky 19th-century whaling ship stuck in the ice near the Pole. The men have dwindled and died, leaving three anxious crew and an unseen captain. The three whalers bicker, bully and bond in a surreally hilarious script that’s a bit Beckett and a tad LaBute. It swings from mean to mad to tender in the space of a few minutes.

Daisy Hall’s debut play, Bellringers, was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2023 and transferred from the Edinburgh Fringe to Hampstead Theatre. This new show is staged in the studio downstairs, which appears to have shrunk in size and become squeezed into the shape of the bow of a ship. The stage acts as the pointy bit of the boat. Once the light’s dimmed, we were IN that cabin with those men. Sound design by Anna Short delivers a creaking hull and the crack of splintering ice. Those audio incursions delivered an ominous and atmospheric soundscape.

Fresh from RADA this year, Abdul Jalloh plays Sam, a teen whaler who’s both fragile and infuriating. Jalloh imbues him with OCD naivete and a childlike ego. It’s a very impressive debut. Adam Rojko Vega plays Gorey, mourning the death of his best friend and looking like an unslept crack head. Despite a troubled mind, he’s often the weary voice of reason. Vega gives a magnetic performance that shifts from barely supressed rage to resigned compassion. He has sharp comic timing too. ‘Babben’ is the veteran of the trio, a grizzled ol’ sea dog and reluctant father figure, played by Justin Edwards. Like many elders, he’s flawed, thin-skinned and sentimental for tradition. Edwards gives a nuanced and charismatic turn, excelling at the flashes of clownery and pragmatic, dark pessimism.

The dramatic dilemma at the heart of Dogstar is the curse of overfishing and the Hell of other people in a confined space. With the stock of whales declining, the captain chooses to plough deeper into the deadly ice, which then surrounds and entraps them. The three men can barely stand each other, but they’re also aware that conflict will rub further salt into their wounds. Death looms large and they have different ways of processing that reality. ‘Scorbutic nostalgia’ is a hallucinatory symptom of scurvy, the condition that killed thousands of sea farers.  The disease terrified sailors due to its body horror symptoms and gibbering descent into madness.

The three characters in Dogstar experience enchanting visions in their dying days and Daisy Hall’s script nods to religious ecstasy, paranormal activity and delusional psychosis with equal weight. Lucy Morrison’s direction disciplined the delicate balance of tension, deranged hope and magical horror. The moods and unfolding action are quite unpredictable and highly open to interpretation. Lighting from Holly Ellis and design by Hannah Schmidt delivers nautical claustrophobia and celestial mysteries very effectively.

Dogstar uses a spooky Victorian framework, but the dialogue feels oddly modern. The themes of infectious disease, destruction of the planet’s resources and reluctant workplace bonding are very 2026. It’s a gripping, dark and entertaining tale and a perfect night out in the run up to Christmas.

Dogstar is at Hampstead Theatre until 5th December, Homepage – Hampstead Theatre

Reviewer: Stewart Who?

Reviewed: 11th November 2026

North West End UK Rating: