The Habits ★★★★ Hampstead Theatre | Feb 28 - Apr 5, 2025


This one is definitely a winner! Centred around a game of Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D as it's known to serious players, Jack Bradfield has produced an innovative and original piece of writing. As in the game, the plot and characters are revealed only gradually and the audience's quest to know these people and to empathise with their various situations is only fully achieved at the end. It is a neat parallelism which Bradfield beautifully brings off by creating characters who are instantly interesting. It is an unlikely group who are ostensibly drawn together by their commitment to the role-play game. Sixteen-year-old Jess, the Dungeon Master, convincingly played by Ruby Stokes, is the central character. While she is apparently in control of the group's quest to vanquish the Nightmare King, she is actually in thrall to the trauma of her brother's death. In both the game, and in her grief, her companions are the pugnaciously woke and corporately ambitious Maryn, who was her late brother's bisexual girlfriend, and the needy and nerdy slacker, Milo who was his mate. As the former, Sara Hazemi is nicely feisty, and as the latter, Jamie Bisping is hilariously perfect. He does a nice job of never descending into parody of a character who is right on the cusp of caricature. In their adventure these young people are joined by the owner of the Board Games Café, Dennis, and by his new girlfriend, Bev, who interestingly met at a gathering of Gamblers Anonymous. As Dennis, Paul Thornley is totally endearing as an adult version of Milo, while Debra Baker gets it just right as the more prosaic and practical Bev. Ed Madden's direction makes good use of the small space available and deals quite well with the issue that playing a board game means that backs are frequently turned to the audience. In fact, this becomes a nice metaphor for Bradfield whose characters are indeed looking inward and in some ways turning from the game of life to a world of fantasy. Unsurprisingly however, they can't really escape and end up having to confront their nightmares. The Habits is thoughtful and entertaining theatre that takes its audience on an imaginative odyssey which confronts some painful realities.

Rated: ★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Genevieve Girling

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: Eton Ave, London NW3 3EU, UK

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