Review: That Almost Unnameable Lust – Charged, Soho Theatre

Part of the Charged season at Soho Theatre

“You think it’s a mad idea…that prison might give some women just time on their own”

Keeping the same trio of actresses from Part 1, director Caroline Steinbeis gets to work in the main theatre for her second offering which is probably the strongest piece of writing, That Almost Unnameable Lust by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Two lifers are visited in prison by a writer who is trying to carry out research for a book as she discovers that all sorts of women can end up inside.

Beatie Edney’s Liz movingly talks of the regular spousal abuse that finally resulted in her putting an end to it, but it is Janet Henfrey’s haunted Katherine that is unmissable. She does not speak, yet through her subconscious tells us of happier times in her youth though the hints of darkness around the edges are never far away and made explicit with her propensity for self-harming.

Steinbeis makes the most of the drama with its interior monologues and swing interludes, presenting an interesting visual experience to partner the excellent script. Rebecca Oldfield also does well as the well-meaning but rather gauche and incredibly naïve writer who has no idea of the reality of life in prison and who receives a harsh education in the truth of their lives especially through Liz’s recounting of the domestic violence that blighted her life. Truly harrowing but totally captivating.

1 thought on “Review: That Almost Unnameable Lust – Charged, Soho Theatre

  1. I went to see the play. I really did not like it. It was offensive to the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).I was angered. I did not see it to be necessary to include offensive language towards the Prophet mohammed (PBUH) and for that reason the play to me was nonesense!

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