Christiana Rose on electric performance that leaves you reeling and thoughtful

Cast of Til The Stars Come Down at Theatre Royal Haymarket between the curtains — (Credit – Christiana Rose)

From its first breath to its final, gut-punching moment, Till the Stars Come Down is an electric theatre performance which leaves you reeling and thoughtful.

Playwright Beth Steel and director Bijan Sheibani deliver a production that feels both timeless and startlingly relevant, capturing the fragile fault lines which run through families, communities, and the stories we tell ourselves to keep going.

Set against the backdrop of a wedding which threatens to unravel at the seams, the play crackles with raw, uneasy humour and moments of devastating honesty. The dialogue is so natural you could be eavesdropping on a real family teetering on the edge of chaos.

The cast is uniformly exceptional, each performer digging deep to find both tenderness and sharp edges in their characters. Particularly compelling was Dorothy Atkinson as Aunty Carol, whose vibrant and earthy take as the meddling matriarch was both tangible, hilarious and memorable.

The role of Sylvia by Sinéad Matthews, insightfully developed from accommodating to unflinchingly exhausted resignation. Sylvia’s predicament means navigating through unsettling familial conflict, reflect on the unenviable task of appeasing her family, the grief of the loss of her mother and the need to move on with her new husband. Julian Kostov plays the incredibly welcoming and likeable Marek, a hardworking, accomplished and successful man, understandably critical of Sylvia’s vastly prejudiced and xenophobic family who oppose his Polish roots.

Visually, the production is striking in its use of a surrounding audience on all sides of the stage beyond the regular proscenium arch, somewhat uncomfortably bringing the audience in as wedding guests. The rotating stage offers additional sightlines and feels intimate yet expansive, giving the cast room to breathe and collide in equal measure.

The set is created with a surprisingly clever twist bringing the weather into a world that feels lived-in; a family kitchen, a dance floor and outdoor dining space, all waiting to erupt as the tension grows.

A particular highlight was a human movement demonstration of how the planets rotate and align, bringing both wonder and impending dread of the unraveling, with Lucy Black as Hazel compellingly drawing us into her orbit.

What truly elevates Till the Stars Come Down is its unflinching commitment to truth. It’s a play about uncomfortable love, about the kind of love which bruises, binds, disappoints. The type of love which is taboo and unattainable. As the action explodes, their world order irrevocably shifts to never be the same again.

Till the Stars Come Down is a theatrical masterpiece. Raw, unapologetic theatre, which leads with stark truth which exposes the shortcomings of mankind.

5 stars

Till the Stars Come Down runs at The Theatre Roysl Haymarket until 27 September 2025.

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