The Unbelievers – Royal Court Theatre – Saturday 8th November 2025

(Rated 4/5) I was invited by friends to see ‘The Unbelievers’ as Nicola Walker was in it and they knew I like her. As I’ve said before anything with NW is an immediate “Yes” from me <3. Back when that lovely invitation came through to me, I then didn’t even bother to look up the play or what it was about. I confess I didn’t even notice it was written by Nick Payne, and nor did I recall when much nearer the time of going, what I had seen that NP had written! Just that his name sounded very familiar. And, it is only just before writing my experience of this production, that I realised Nick was the writer of ‘Constellations’, which I gave a 7/5 after seeing it back in 2012!!! It and the performances in it blew me away. If anyone wishes, they can look up my review, but suffice to say it seems to have made me friends with Physics and re-awakened a love of performance, which for some reason I’d lost a little. Nope, I don’t remember why!

So, not the least surprise that ‘The Unbelievers’ has at its heart a very clever idea around time (and space 😉) and is jam-packed with an exploration of the wide-range of human emotion (in this case in response to the missing of a loved-one) and a wide variety of human relationships. Nicola plays the mother of the missing person, and the play explores that fracturing feeling of time, and the sometimes-polar responses she has in her own psychological fracturing following her son’s disappearance with no explanation as to how or why. That desperate constant trauma of the not-knowing. Will she and the family ever get an answer as to what has happened?

‘The Unbelievers’ jumps around in time throughout the seven years it covers from the first moment of missing to – well seven years later! The scene is the same throughout, but with the family of characters related in some way to missing Oscar – or those attempting to help in the search for him – coming into or out of that scene in the family home. Those ‘off-stage’ sit or stand – as though waiting, worrying, contemplating – at the back of the stage behind glass screens so they can all be seen, and are always present. I found that a clever idea too. And in that presence also exaggerates the absence of that one key missing person, around whom absolutely everything revolves.

Nicola is phenomenal – no surprise either that she was or that I would say that I guess haha – and really does take us through the waves of reactions you’d expect in the circumstances – sometimes full-on breaking down, anger, hysterical laughter, crying in agony, disbelief or even scorn towards how her family are responding. It is a very much a blended family about whom you discover more and more in terms of individual characters and the dynamics between them as the play progresses. The ensemble – and it really is an ensemble piece – are terrific. The ‘action’ moves from the sublime to ridiculous and all in between. I have to admit though I personally enjoyed one of the most ridiculous scenes in which one character teaches everyone else about Puffins!

This play is not an ‘easy’ watch. As it jumps around in time, at first, I found myself trying to work out when we were in relation to the initial disappearance, and then coming to a kind of acceptance that it doesn’t actually matter. The agonies around loss like this – and I would imagine even more so when there may be no finding or answer/closure – are going to come and go not necessarily in any linear fashion. Of course, it is also exploring the heights and depths of emotion, with a constant tension as a thread throughout. So much so that at one point, as it happened during a séance-scene, I felt myself in the midst of a panic attack, and had to take some deep breaths and sips of tea to calm myself down! None of we three would say we enjoyed it as such, and one of my companions was very emotional at the end. It is likely to trigger anyone who allows themselves to engage empathically with it and the characters. Incidentally, they all – current partner, ex-partner, siblings, half-siblings, police, medic, parapsychology investigator etc etc – are written and performed exceptionally well with their own idiosyncrasies. Nobody is boring to the audience, even if they might be so, or even annoying or whatever else, to each other.

We had a funny experience when a town known well by us – due to a family connection – got mentioned as quite an obscure place (if I remember right) – and I couldn’t help laughing at that. Kind of a shame as I got distracted and didn’t take in quite why it was being mentioned or what happened there! One of my companions, meanwhile, was focused on trying to see if she could recognise the shops mentioned in the town and not doing so! Quite a funny incident personal to us. Sadly, a very unfunny incident also happened, mid-scene in which mouth swabs were being taken, a woman in black wearing a head-set came on stage and stopped the performers. We were all told we had to leave the auditorium. Someone in the audience had been taken ill. So, we had an unplanned interval of around twenty minutes! I just hope the person was ok. That certainly added anxiety to proceedings, but as the actors came back on stage, Nicola – as herself – gave a little smile – before heading back into character. I found that immensely comforting.

I tend to mostly avoid reviews before I go to productions, but having a quick scan through since, I realise it didn’t seem to ‘land’ with many. For me, it is not as good as ‘Constellations’, or at least as far as my memory of that is re-awakened by my Restricted Review of it. And, I guess, something feels missing in ‘The Unbelievers’ for me too, yet I can’t put my finger on what. Maybe, bizarrely, that reflects the nature of the play – something missing or you’re not quite believing.

TheUnbelievers – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2025