Unicorn – The Garrick Theatre – Saturday 19th April 2025

(Rated 5/5) So, a friend says ‘Nicola Walker is in…’, ‘Yes!’, ‘…a play’, ‘Yes, Yes!!’, ‘…called…’, ‘It doesn’t matter, you had me at Nicola Walker, yes please, let’s go…’, ‘…Unicorn…’, ‘Ah, okay, so maybe she’s playing a beautiful horse with a horn and colourful mane and tail, well, that’s a choice, and that’s ok, it’s Nicola Walker, anything she does will be great, so still yes… {another idea hits} or Unicorns were associated with Brexit… well, still, even if it’s that, it’s Nicola Walker, BIG YES!!!’ Tickets get booked and I no longer think about it… To explain a little further I first noticed Nicola Walker when I went to see ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’ on stage with Luke Treadaway as the main character Christopher. Nicola played Christopher’s mother. My partner commented at the interval, ‘Who is playing the mother? She’s very good’. There couldn’t be a greater compliment – he rarely even says anyone is just ‘good’. Of course, she has been in numerous other productions on stage and screen. My personal favourites include ‘Last Tango in Halifax’, ‘Unforgotten’, ‘Annika’ and ‘River’. It’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t seen her, but she has a sensitivity, a quality to her acting that is just so beautifully natural, so open, so full of sharing of herself for the character and so for the audience, that connects with the deepest parts of ourselves. She can be so nuanced or full on; either way you can read all in her face with her lovely large eyes and quirky expressions, and add to that the mannerisms in her body language. I guess there are some actors, who are just so exceptional in their whole way of being, and are so naturally themselves within each character, and that’s exactly what you want to see!

SO, the next thing that happens is another friend of mine reports that she has seen ‘Unicorn’, and didn’t really rate it. This was the point where I started to wonder what it was. The basic premise of the play is married couple Nick & Polly are finding their love life together a little lacking, hence they decide they want to search for a ‘Unicorn’ – a third party to join them in the bedroom and help spice things up. Enter Kate. Around the same time as my friend’s feedback, I saw Nicola Walker (Polly), Stephen Mangan (Nick) and Erin Doherty (Kate and incidentally also Princess Anne in ‘The Crown’) interviewed on This Morning about it. I found it a really fascinating and intriguing interview. Yet still, after that the friend I was due to see it with warned me we should lower our expectations as it had some very mixed, even possibly ‘bad’ reviews. So, I braced myself, walked into the auditorium and found my seat with the lowest expectations I could muster and then, well, we watched til the interval. My friend turned to me, anxiety and concern at the thought of what she had got me to spend on my ticket written on her face, and I responded with ‘Wow, oh wow, just wow’, she said ‘Phew’ and we both laughed!!! I think to just base an assessment of whether something is for you or not on its basic premise can sometimes be problematic, possibly. And I wonder how much of that is what put some people off? You don’t have to want to invite a Unicorn into your own relationship yourself to appreciate this play imho. You just need an open mind, and I think perhaps a love of exploring into humans relating to each other and what is involved in all that, as well as raising interesting questions about the impact of life’s big issues and our own mortality, in maybe the even more difficult world we live in today and how all of that impacts on how we relate to each other. These three characters model all that for us. As part of this review, I am going to share some of the snippets of reviews I found on billboards outside the theatre in addition to some reactions of the cast and creatives in the programme. With that in mind – and also repeating myself a little – here was my immediate social media reaction:- ‘Wow, well J & I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised by Unicorn. It’s a play about so much more than the Unicorn concept of the title, raising so many issues around love, life, relating, mortality and the challenges of just being in the world we face today. So exquisitely and cleverly written and equally exquisitely and sensitively performed on the edges of comedy and pain. Nicola walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty gold standard. Wow, just WOW.’

That night I also ordered the play text – I want to be able to read all those ideas over and over. Of course, it won’t give me the in the moment feelings of the dialogue being performed in their three couples and then thrupple on stage, but I hope it will trigger my muscle memory – my brain and heart memories of the emotions I was feeling watching Nicola as Polly, Stephen as Nick and Erin as Kate. ‘Unicorn’ is written by Mike Bartlett and directed by James MacDonald. Still, now, I am avoiding looking at other reviews, though, did read from a review shared by a relative, that maybe the space of the theatre wasn’t right for the intimacy of the piece. Being close to the stage in the stalls I didn’t miss out myself, but I can see why others may have. And, it’s coming to a close very soon, so I guess it’s a little late for me to recommend people go see it, sorry! Though, maybe it’ll get a revival at some later stage.

I found out that part of Erin’s research for her part was to watch the Thrupple in ‘Couples Therapy’ with psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik. I love that show, and, as a psychotherapist/counsellor myself have met so many people from many walks of life, with such a variety of life views. I guess that has given me such a wealth of experience and the pleasure and gift of needing to be open-minded as part of my job! But, I relish that anyway. And, once again, for me life is all about relating and it is simply my favourite thing to do and to witness!

Unicorn – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2025