Review: THE GUILTY, Donmar Warehouse

Photo credit: Helen Murray

Stuck in a small, dusty corner of the 999 emergency dispatch room, Joseph McClusky (Russell Tovey) is bored and frustrated. Surrounded by plastic-covered desks and a lonely locker housing a dead plant, it's a bleak picture. Suspended from regular duty for reasons that remain unknown, Joe has been relegated to emergency call handling. His first few calls quickly establish the mundanity and emotional exhaustion of the job. From talking down a teenager who has overdosed on ketamine, to a young man mugged by a sex worker, to a woman determined to report her noisy neighbour, Joe is already at the end of his tether when an alarming call changes everything.

A terrified young woman named Emily has been kidnapped and is trapped in a van speeding away from London. Suddenly alert and completely engaged, Joe uses every tool at his disposal to piece together what has happened. He learns that Emily has been abducted by her ex-husband while their two young children, Abby and Oliver, are home alone. Almost as though life has handed him a second chance, Joe throws himself into the case, determined to save Emily and protect her children. As the story unfolds, we also learn that his own life is rapidly falling apart. He is estranged from his wife, barely has a relationship with his daughter, and faces a mysterious trial the following morning.

Russell Tovey is mesmerising, playing Joe with equal parts tenderness and grit. He captures a man desperately trying to regain control as every aspect of his life slips through his fingers. The harder Joe fights to hold everything together, the more it threatens to unravel. Felix Barrett's precise direction keeps the tension taut throughout, creating something that feels even more immediate and higher stakes than the film. Joe repeatedly pushes beyond the boundaries of his role, risking his career, his relationships and even his colleagues' trust in his determination to save a stranger. He is both good cop and bad cop, navigating not only Emily's crisis but his own.

Based on the screenplay Den Skyldige, The Guilty delivers an enthralling sixty minutes of theatre. As Emily's truth slowly emerges alongside Joe's own, the play leaves us sitting in a space of genuine moral ambiguity. What happens when the two people we've been rooting for prove capable of the unimaginable? The production doesn't offer easy answers, nor does it need to.

There are a handful of unanswered questions. The revelation of the voices towards the end feels deliberately ambiguous - is it to acknowledge the actor’s performance, or is it hinting at something more? Likewise, practical details about Joe's access to various computers or why no one relieves him after his shift never quite add up. Yet these are minor quibbles in a production that remains gripping from beginning to end.

A taut, nerve-racking thriller anchored by a phenomenal central performance. Once the phone rings, you won’t be able to look away.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: A.M.H.

The Guilty plays at London’s Donmar Warehouse until 15 August, with further info here.