Peter Viney's Blog

By Florian Zeller
Translated by Christopher Hampton

Directed by Lindsay Posner
Set design by Lizzie Clachan

The Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London
Tuesday 1st September 2026, 8 pm

Stephen Mangan – Michel
Ardal O’Hanlon – Paul
Janie Dee – Laurence
Sarah Hadland – Alice

We saw the original production at the tiny Menier Chocolate Factory on the South Bank, also directed by Lindsay Posner in 2016, and this is a tenth year revival with two of our all-time favourite TV sit com actors, Stephen Mangan and Ardal O’Hanlan. Episodes and Father Ted are our choice of their work. It’s very hard to review without plot spoilers, and I feel I said it all in the review of the 2016 one. Florian Zeller is a great favourite. So the same director and designer are revisiting the play in a much bigger theatre in the West End (at way higher prices than the Menier) with more famous lead actors, cementing its status as a 21st century classic. It’s something I like doing with textbooks – the revised edition with better illustration.

The play is so good in its twists and turns that even after ten years since we first saw it, it loses somewhat because there are no surprises. I read the text ten years ago too. If you didn’t see the original, you’ll enjoy it even more. On second viewing, you appreciate the detail of the dialogue writing. This is a first rate script. There is an excellent programme note on the translation from French.

Alice (Sarah Hadland) and Michel (Stephen Mangan)

Michel (Stephen Mangan) is the central role, and is never off stage. We first meet him in bed with Alice, (Sarah Hadland) the wife of his best friend, Paul (Ardal O’Hanlan). Alice is a doctor. Paul lost his job three weeks ago. While Alice wants to talk about their relationship, Michel is much more interested in finding his missing sock. He’s up and getting dressed as soon as the deed is done.

Michel is married to Laurence (Janie Dee) who is a teacher. but has had a day off on strike, a point which is very French, but leads to the phone calls here and there that fuel the plot. Michel is a narcissist and a consummate liar. He is horrified when others act as he has, he can’t believe they too have lied to him. Tables are turned.

The play is robust enough to have four different actors putting their own different slant on the roles. The set is more elaborate, but then the Apollo has a bigger stage than the Menier. There are seven titled scenes in the 90 minutes running time and the changes of scene are still rapid and effective. We start in a Paris hotel room, we see Michel and Laurence’s home, an identical hotel room in Bordeaux (only the picture on the wall is different, as it would be in hotel chains), the tennis club, Alice’s surgery, and Paul and Alice’s home.

Stephen Mangan plays Michel as larger, more frenetic than Alexander Hanson last time, making full use of his facial mobility. He gets more impassioned as he gets confused as lies are exposed. It’s very funny, but more broadly funny. Hanson was also funny but in a subtler way. We have never seen Stephen Mangan without him demonstrating his amazing anteater tongue, which he does here licking around the rim of Paul’s whisky glass. Finding he’s been deceived on the tennis court is the ultimate insult, worse than infidelity.

Ardal O’Hanlan’s Paul, is quite, calm, so restrained in contrast, yet his simple soft ‘I did’ got one of the biggest laughs of the night. It’s a strong reactive acting role, and they contrast – as Mangan gets more passionate, O’Hanlan just gets calmer. The slight smile on his face tells an awful lot.

Alice (Sarah Hadland): A weekend away with Michel, then the busy doctor

Sarah Hadland as Alice is the one who brings out her guilt, but also she has the need for affection rather than just quick afternoon sex. This pulls in the truth / comfortable lie / white lie discussion. She can also show fury when Michel invades her working space in her surgery. I realise writing this that we never see Paul and Alice together in the play.

Janie Dee as Laurence remains sophisticated and above it all, then has the unenviable task of delivering the final comment on the whole mess with just one look over Michel’s shoulder. Brilliantly carried off too.

We sat in the stalls, row F, which was almost like being at the smaller more intimate (and sadly closed) Menier. Back then it was a co-production with the also tiny Bath Ustinov Studio. I’m not sure that the impact would be the same in the two levels of circles high above or at the back of this traditional red-velour seated gilt covered West End theatre . It’s a very intimate play. You need to be close.

It’s fast, the acting is tremendous, it remains extremely funny. It is different in Mangan’s approach, though I stress “different,; not ‘better.’ Still five star.

*****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

Five star
Mark Lawson, The Guardian *****

Four star
Domenic Cavendish ****
Time Out, ****
Eleanor B, Theatre & Tonic ****
Staged, ****

Three star
Matt Wolf, London Theatre ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

FLORIAN ZELLER
The Lie by Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory, 2017
The Truth by Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
The Truth by Florian Zeller, Apollo, London 2026
The Father, Florian Zeller 2020 (film)
The Height of The Storm, Bath, September 2018

CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON (Adaptor, Screenplay)
Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre 2023
The Father, Florian Zeller 2020
God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, also Bath 2018
The Lie, Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory 2017
The Truth, Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
The Height of The Storm, Bath, September 2018
An Enemy Of The People by Ibsen Chichester2016


LINDSAY POSNER
Present Laughter by Noël Coward, Bath & tour 2026 Tracy-Ann Oberman
Equus, by Peter Shaffer, Bath 2026
Endgame, Samuel Beckett, Bath Ustinov 2025
1984, Adapted by Ryan Craig, Bath 2024
A View From The Bridge, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2024
The Deep Blue Sea, Bath Ustinov 2024
The Lover / The Collection by Harold Pinter, Bath Ustinov 2024
Farewell Mr Haffman By Jean-Philippe Gaguerre, Bath Ustinov 2023
God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, Bath Theatre Royal 2018
The Lie by Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory, 2017
The Truth by Florian Zeller, Menier Chocolate Factory 2016
Communicating Doors by Alan Ayckbourn, Menier Chocolate Factory 2015
Dinner With Saddam by Anthony Horowitz, Menier Chocolate Factory 2015
The Hypochondriac by Moliere, adapted Richard Bean, Bath Theatre Royal, 2014 
A Little Hotel On The Side By Feydau, Bath Theatre Royal 2013
She Stoops To Conquer by Goldsmith, Bath Theatre Royal 2014
Hay Fever by Noel Coward, Bath Theatre Royal 2014
Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh, Poole Lighthouse 2013

STEPHEN MANGAN
Unicorn, by Mike Bartlett, West End, 2025
Private Lives, by Noël Coward, Donmar Warehouse 2023
The Man in The White Suit, Bath Theatre Royal, 2019
The Birthday Party, by Harold Pinter, Harold Pinter Theatre, 2018
Birthday, by Joe Penhall, Royal Court, 2012 (Ed)
Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, Brighton (pre-London) 2013
Rules for Living by Sam Holcoft, Dorfman, National Theatre 2015

ARDAL O’HANLON
Dancing at Lughnasa 2023, by Brien Friel, National Theatre, 2023

JANIE DEE
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, by Bertolt Brecht, adapted by Stephen Sharkey, RSC 2026
1984, Bath 2024 (filmed section)
The Motive & The Cue, National Theatre 2023
Follies, National Theatre 2019
Ah! Wilderness, Young Vic 2015

SARAH HADLAND
The Norman Conquests, trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn, Chichester 2017