Stage Kiss – Hampstead Theatre

Currently in its UK debut at Hampstead Theatre, Stage Kiss explores the nature of acting and the intimacy of a kiss, asking where are the lines between reality and performance, and what would the fallout be if those lines began to blur?

In Sarah Bruhl’s critically acclaimed romantic comedy, an actress returning to work after a long break finds her ex has been cast opposite her in a revival of a terrible 1930s play, The Last Kiss, where the plot makes no sense and half the characters are called Millicent. Life begins to mirror art as the leads fall back in love, just like the characters they portray, causing upheaval in their normal lives. But is the romance sustainable once the play they’re in has ended? As the reality of being poor and out of work sets in, they are cast in a second terrible play, this time with a grittier subject matter that provokes memories of the breakdown of their previous relationship.

Funny from the start, the play brilliantly satirises the world of theatre, from the director who barely directs, to the young hopeful who’s trained in stage combat. Blanche McIntyre’s direction immerses us in a gently-mocking world of rehearsals, while Robert Innes Hopkins’ set reflects the relationship path of the main characters, starting with a mostly bare stage during the rehearsal process as the main characters reconnect, then an opulent art deco set when the romance is consuming them, followed by the final setting of the barely functional one-room apartment.

Myanna Buring plays the neurotic and self-doubting female lead, who does a convincing Katherine Hepburn impression for her character in The Last Kiss. The energy of her performance helps to speed the play along, the pace underscoring the humour. Opposite her, Patrick Kennedy is full of charm as the suave man-child, still living in a dingy bedsit, existing on takeaways, and not reliable enough to have a credit card.  Unusually, the lead characters have no names – they are referred to in the script only as She and He – a choice by Sarah Bruhl meant to encourage the actors playing them to draw on their own experiences and reinforce the blurring of art and life.

Oliver Dimsdale as She’s husband has excellent comic timing, and Rolf Saxon is hilarious as the deadpan director, but the more minor characters often feel like one-dimensional caricatures. The angsty teenager who gets a tattoo and the kindergarten teacher whose idea of food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a disappointing element, although both characters are ably played Toto Bruin and Jill Winternitz. James Phoon as Kevin, the aspiring leading man, gives a strong performance as an intentionally bad actor, but there’s too little to distinguish his character of Kevin from the characters Kevin plays. 

Thankfully, these small niggles don’t do much to detract from the whole. With a sharp and witty script and excellent cast, Stage Kiss is an entertaining take on the idiosyncrasies of performing. Its meta play-within-a-play set up allows Bruhl to take a wry look at her own world, while exploring what it really means to be intimate.

Stage Kiss runs until the 13th of June at the Hampstead Theatre.  Tickets are available here: https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/ 

Reviewer: Charlotte Mansfield

Reviewed: 14th May 2026

North West End UK Rating: