Being at the Edinburgh Fringe for a couple of weeks in August invariably means missing out on shows happening in London, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive an invite to review an archive recording of a show that had a short run during last summer’s Camden Fringe. It was even more of a pleasant surprise to discover it had been recorded at Barons Court Theatre, one of the smallest live performance venues in London, both in terms of seating capacity and stage space. This production did very well to utilise the available space, with at least two cameras in situ and various musical instruments. In the relative darkness of the theatre, I couldn’t quite tell if the brass instrument being played occasionally was a tuba. Whatever it was, it was used brilliantly for certain sound effects.
A one-act show with a young cast, this is, perhaps surprisingly, not one of those shows that proceeds at a blistering pace. The dialogue is, for the most part, at normal conversational speed, and if the narrative doesn’t quite make sense, that all seems to be part of the show’s absurdist appeal. It would have been beneficial to have more in the way of context and ‘history’ – it’s clear the people of Juggsville are dependent on the Juggernaut, some sort of mythical being, worship it and even believe a prophecy that the town will cease to exist whenever such time as the Juggernaut ceases to exist. But how did these people, or rather their ancestors, ever come to believe in the Juggernaut in the first place?
Bill (Zachary Matcham), a delivery driver, is one of the few people from outside Juggsville who has permission to enter – a patrol officer (Aria Cundall) asks to see his paperwork, duly supplied. He just wants to do his deliveries and head back to the depot, and then home. A road traffic collision, however, stops a routine shift from being a routine shift, and an encounter with Stinky (Tom Crabtree) leads to the surreal and frankly bizarre.
Story-wise, the show ends rather abruptly: it could have done with an epilogue to wrap things up and explain what, if anything, happened to the town in the light of the show’s critical incident that threatened the town’s very existence. A good effort that, with further development, could become something more rounded, the play asks some good questions about unconditional loyalty and seemingly permanent over-reliance on that which is known to be temporary.
Review by Chris Omaweng
A cryptid is dead. A town begins to rot. And Bill has one night to raise the beast—or be buried with it. Juggernaut is a surreal and striking debut from playwright Lyle Sauer, developed as part of the Royal Court Playwriting Programme. The piece blends live music, ritual, and razor-edged humour into a mythic, nightmarish tale about small-town rot, sacred roadkill, and the limits of belief. When a holy beast is killed by a candy delivery truck, a necromancing taxidermist offers Bill a terrible choice: resurrect the creature or watch the town collapse into chaos. As grief, secrecy, and devotion fester, Juggernaut explores faith and failure in a decaying world where nothing stays buried for long.
Writer: Lyle Sauer
Co-directors: Lyle Sauer, Isabella Stavrou, Sofiia Sydoruk
Producers: Matt Cuff (Off the Cuff Productions), Lyle Sauer
Cast: Tom Crabtree, Aria Cundall, Zachary Matcham, Molly Spain, Sofiia Sydoruk, Kymani Charles
Movement Direction: Sofiia Sydoruk
Musical Direction: Kymani Charles
Set Design: Janne Legaspi
Lighting Design: Sophie Telfer
Costume Design: Ellie Bertholf
JUGGERNAUT
Originally presented as part of The Camden Fringe, Barons Court Theatre, 14 to 16 August 2025
