Foal is an eighty-five-minute, one-person play of striking contrasts: a mesmerising central performance by Amar Chadha-Patel as A.K. plus high production values as one has come to expect at this venue. What emerges is a tense, intimate and often unsettling descent into memory, masculinity, racism and self-recrimination.
Chadha-Patel has an almost restless physicality, swiftly able to shift between childhood innocence and adult disillusionment. We feel his inner energy is trapped inside his body, tightly coiled and ready to explode at any time.
He gives Annie Kershaw’s direction great pace, thereby often glossing over some of the weaknesses in Titas Holder’s script which relates A.K.’s life story from the age of about ten to mid-thirties, growing up as one of the few non-white children on a small island ( the Isle of Wight is implied several times), enduring casual racism and family problems which often create a dream-like atmosphere that suits the play’s blurred boundaries between recollection, nightmare and confession.
Foal is billed as a ‘revenge thriller’ yet these elements never seem to generate real suspense, and what violence there is does not always sit that happily with the more introspective moments of the piece. However, Kershaw has, as imaginative directors often can, managed to make Foal a thrilling piece of theatre for much of the time: perhaps slight abridgement might make for a stronger piece of theatre, especially the rather strange moments when A.K. uses a microphone to enhance his thoughts. The trouble with this, in the intimate space of Finborough Theatre, is that the ambience given makes it difficult to hear what A.K. is saying – whatever Kershaw was trying to express in this way just does not come over.
Cara Evans’ set, a simple whiteish bench beneath a two-pronged streetlight, becomes multiple locations through suggestion rather than realism. Pierre Flasse’s underscoring and sound design actually aid the creation of mood on this occasion, as does Rajiv’s Pattani’s lighting – both being bold, sensory and sometimes overwhelming, often mirroring A.K.’s thoughts.
Chadha-Patel gives a bravura performance throughout, surmounting most of the play’s weaker moments, creating a fever-dream atmosphere which at times is almost mesmerizing. This is a tour-de-force of acting and should be seen! Recommended!
Review by John Groves
A.K. wants to escape the Island. Live a good life. But the sea draws you back.
When a dreadful secret comes to light, A.K. returns to his home town to confront the shadows of his childhood and put right a terrible wrong. The thing is, he’s worried about the other version of himself, the one who lives inside his ribcage.
An exhilarating fever dream, Foal is a revenge thriller set in the era of the Sony Walkman; a lyrical, urgent new play about masculinity, compassion, and retribution.
Cast: Amar Chadha-Patel
Written by Titas Halder
Directed by Annie Kershaw
Set and Costume Design by Cara Evans
Lighting Design by Rajiv Pattani
Composer and Sound Designer – Pierre Flasse
Assistant Director – Jillian Feuerstein
FOAL
Finborough Theatre
5 to 30 May 2026
