Review: THE SHITHEADS, Royal Court Theatre
Photo credit: Camilla Greenwell
“Tens of thousands of years ago, Britain’s earliest inhabitants learn that love and violence feed the same fire.”
With that arresting opening line, Jack Nicholls’ debut play immediately plants a seed of unease. There’s a nervous curiosity in the air a sense that what we’re about to witness will be both primal and uncomfortably familiar.
In The Shitheads, strangers arrive at a secluded cave and domestic harmony fractures into something far more savage. Set against a stark, cave-like stage bare except for a defining hole on the horizon that teases what may lie beyond. The production feels stripped back to its bones. That singular visual detail becomes quietly powerful, a symbol of both possibility and threat.
Co-directed by Royal Court Resident Director Aneesha Srinivasan and Artistic Director David Byrne, the world premiere drags us back to the beginning of who we are. On an elk hunt, cave dwellers with wildly different perspectives collide, and what unfolds is savage, darkly funny, and unexpectedly tender.
The performances are visceral and gut-wrenching. Without spoiling too much, the work involving the animal caretakers forms the surreal yet grounded backbone of the production, lending it an immersive quality that lingers. The physicality throughout is astonishing, raw, and emotionally charged.
Nicholls’ writing is beautiful: cyclical, layered with symbolism, and full of meaning. Yet it never feels self-indulgent. Just when you think you understand the world he has created, it shifts beneath you. The play proves that new writing is not only alive and well, but fearless. It shows that you can build your own world, invent your own rules as long as that world is fully realised and lived in.
Savage but sweet, unsettling yet strangely moving, The Shitheads marks Jack Nicholls as a playwright to watch.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Beatriz Ferreira
The Shitheads plays at London’s Royal Court Theatre until 14 March, with further info here.
