PLAY REVIEW: Speak of The Devil ★★

There is something inherently theatrical about a delayed train: strangers thrown together, polite conversation filling the silence, and the creeping suspicion that something is not quite right. Unfortunately, despite a promising premise, Elise Simond’s Speak of the Devil struggles to turn its intriguing ingredients into a genuinely gripping piece of drama.

Set aboard a train to Penzance, the play follows a group of passengers whose mundane journey takes an increasingly sinister turn. As conversations unfold and unsettling details emerge, the everyday begins to give way to something altogether more surreal. Simond clearly has an eye for the uncanny, but the production too often mistakes portentousness for genuine tension.

The central problem lies in the writing. Personal stories emerge with little natural prompting, making exchanges feel like convenient vehicles for exposition rather than believable encounters between strangers. Characters remain frustratingly thin, while revelations that ought to land with a sense of discovery arrive with a predictability that undermines the intended mystery. What begins as an intriguing study of human connection becomes an uneven collection of monologues searching for a cohesive dramatic thread.

As writer and director, Simond establishes an unsettling atmosphere, but the pacing rarely allows suspense to develop organically. The performances, meanwhile, can feel overstated, with emphatic delivery occasionally substituting for emotional subtlety. In an intimate venue, such theatrical excess becomes particularly noticeable, while moments intended to provide dark humour struggle to find their mark.

There are flashes of potential in the premise and its exploration of the strangers we encounter in passing. Yet Speak of the Devil never quite finds the balance between the ordinary and the extraordinary. An ambitious idea, but one that needs considerably more restraint and refinement to make its journey worthwhile.