The Cabin, playing at Barons Court Theatre from July 7th to the 11th, has a very intriguing setup.
Former school classmates Benny, Elsie, Ali, and Matthew wake up in a locked room after their school reunion get-together. They have absolutely no idea how they got there. There are no windows, no doors, just three cameras apparently watching their every move. There appears to be no way out or any means of communicating with the outside world. All but one mobile phone has mysteriously vanished; the one that remains has run out of power.
In a cardboard box, there is a fully loaded gun and a mysterious double-sided note. On one side is the message “One must die”; the obverse side of the note contains the warning, “Or all will die”.
From this unnerving premise, 65 minutes of ever-ratcheting tension, fear and dislocation (laced through with the blackest of humour), follow as the erstwhile school colleagues try to make sense of the situation and attempt to examine the interconnectedness of their relationships to provide a clue to why they are where they are, and what their salvation might be.
Occasional klaxon horns pepper the silence and crank up the disquiet, suggesting that time is moving on and whatever unseen power or hand is orchestrating this desperate scenario is pushing the protagonists to make their agonising decision. Which amongst them is the most treacherous? Who deserves to be saved?
Rarely can the physical playing space of a theatre provide such a perfect partner to the plot.
The audience leaves the hustle and bustle of a busy pub at the height of summer and descends into a dark, stuffy, intensely claustrophobic subterranean set which fully and thoroughly complements the action which unfolds.
As the narrative progresses, we experience the forces of discomfort, discombobulation and intense strain that are playing upon these four young people. Under the acutest pressure, we see how their behaviours change, switching between terror, hostility and panic. Their past history is reviewed, relationships are reassessed, alliances are temporarily forged, then, just as quickly, broken. Doubts are expressed, recriminations rise up, huge swings in trust and belief systems occur in minutes and help frame the next series of insinuations and allegations that fly out from the fragile connections which bind together the entrapped foursome.
Inevitably, old wounds are reopened, hitherto hidden secrets emerge, and betrayals are revealed.
Eventually, the explanation and motive forces underpinning the situation are revealed, not before a sudden, shocking climax hints at a totally unforeseen twist to the denouement.
A play such as this totally stands or falls by the quality and consistency of the ensemble playing. Here, we are in safe hands. It would be invidious to select individual performances in a construct where all of the protagonists play their part equally in driving the narrative forward and ensuring that the overall tension of the piece is maintained.
Max Luck, (Benny), Maisie Bagley (Elsie), Adele Marie (Ali) and Adam Walker-Kavanagh (Matthew), work extremely well together and attack the dialogue in an entirely naturalistic way with enthusiasm and elan. As a result, the narrative fizzes along at pace, albeit occasionally in an over-frenetic, shouty way. Non-verbal communication, with pauses, glances, eye rolling, and periods of silence, is also used adroitly, which adds to the rhythm and flow of the piece.
Lorna Hale’s directs with a light touch, always maintaining a believable and appropriate blocking and placing of characters, no easy feat in such a confined area.
Writer Robert Emlyn Slater has ambitiously tried to cram a lot of themes into this piece.
We have a study of how individuals react in extremely pressurised situations, with the play seeking to shed light upon how social and reality media can affect the psyche of individuals. Certainly, there are distinct references to two of the most successful reality TV events of recent years, Big Brother and The Traitors, in the structure of the plot. At one stage, we also have a modern version of the much older “balloon game” making an appearance, where players get to explain why their character should be spared from being thrown out of a hot air balloon.
In fact, there are so many elements included in the piece, including a number of instances of self-conscious “black humour” (some of which work better than others), that there is a sense that less may be more and a slimmed-down narrative with slightly fewer back stories and interrelationship subplots may have helped drive things along even more effectively.
Certainly, the creator of, and driving force behind, the overall plot is not difficult to identify, and the explanation of the reasoning behind its construction is fairly obvious and a little weak. That having been said, the final moment of the play does introduce an element of ambiguity in terms of how we can be sure of the validity and veracity of what we have just seen.
The Cabin is a tight, very well-acted psychodrama, and has a number of interesting ideas, but in this current incarnation, it suffers a little from too many concepts and subplots crammed into an hour to be completely satisfying.
Review by Johnny Oxford
What’s worse than being locked in a room with people you were at school with?
Maybe a gun being in there?
Former classmates Benny, Elsie, Ali, and Matthew wake up in a locked room together. There are no windows, no doors, just cameras watching their every move.
The only thing in there with them is a gun, and they soon learn that their only way out is by using it to kill one of their group.
As tensions rise and the timer runs out, secrets surface, old wounds are reopened, and heartbreaking betrayals are revealed. But who will kill whom? Who is the most treacherous? And will anyone figure out how to switch off the gun’s safety?
Toeing the line between comedy, horror, and thriller, The Cabin examines relationships, the human condition, and how school reunions really are the worst things ever.
THE CABIN
Barons Court Theatre
7 to 11 July 2026
The play had more than a little in common with Ragnar Jonasson’s novel Outside