Dana H.

US writer Lucas Hnath’s play ‘Dana H.’ was rapturously received by critics, but essentially too weird for mainstream Broadway audiences: it was forced to cut its 2021 run short. The Royal Court, however, would seem to be the perfect London home or the experimental show, which consists of performer Deirdre O'Connell lip-syncing to recordings of Hnath’s own mother discussing the time she was abducted for five months by a violent white supremacist gang member. Critics praised it for O'Connell’s brilliantly technically accomplished, thoroughly disconcerting performance, and Hnath’s ‘script’ – in truth an edit of the recordings – that went like a weird, elliptical true crime podcast. Les Waters’s original production transfers wholesale to the Court, with O'Connell very much along for the ride.