Escaped Alone at The Coronet Theatre is one of those productions that feels perpetually on the verge of becoming something unsettling and profound, yet never quite arrives there. Directed by Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and Alessandro Ferroni, this Italian-language adaptation of Caryl Churchill’s 2016 play certainly has atmosphere, but little dramatic momentum.
The premise is deceptively simple: four older women sit in a suburban garden, chatting about ordinary things: cats, television, old memories, drinks, passing time… Beneath the surface, each carries some private fracture or trauma. Every so often, one of them steps out of the everyday realism to deliver apocalyptic monologues describing floods, disease, famine and societal collapse, while projections and sound design suggest a world quietly sliding towards catastrophe.
The opening is genuinely intriguing. The eerie music and lighting initially evoke something between David Lynch and Ratched: uncanny, stylised, faintly dystopian. For a moment, it seems as though the production is building toward a sharp political or psychological vision. But the tension never develops. Instead, the play settles into long stretches of fragmented conversation that feel deliberately anti-climactic in a Beckett-like way, though without the same emotional precision or dark humour to sustain it.
The cast, Caterina Carpio, Tania Garribba, Arianna Gaudio and Alice Palazzi, are clearly experienced performers, but the production struggles to create a convincing sense of intimacy or lived friendship between the women. The fact that the actresses appear noticeably younger than the characters they are playing also weakens part of the text’s poignancy.
What ultimately frustrates is not the ambiguity itself, but the absence of emotional payoff. The themes of ageing, anxiety and looming collapse are all present, yet the production never quite finds a compelling rhythm or perspective through which to explore them. Aside from some effective lighting and visual atmosphere, this revival feels strangely distant and underwhelming.
Reviewer: Klervi Gavet
Reviewed: 6th May 2026
North West End UK Rating:
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