Nuclear War, Royal Court Upstairs

Nuclear War is a strange and wonderful rumination on the life force. The action takes place in the head of a middle-aged woman who has lost her partner. Time is moving on in a series of set-piece routines on which her imprint is imperceptible. Without a partner she is unvalidated. Walking dust. She considers a fleeting sexual encounter. To lose herself in the moment for one last time. Who with? Around her in the big city, people are intent on their own lives. She is invisible to them.

A cast of five drives this sensate and pulsing short, written by Simon Stephens and turned into an exciting 45 minutes of music and movement by Imogen Knight. At its heart is the Scottish actress Maureen Beattie, washed-up, washed-out, and awash through eddies of pain and despair, dreams and determination. Her prosaic and powerful voice, used both on tape and on the small stage of the Royal Court upstairs, drives the action alongside an exciting electronic score by Elizabeth Bernholz.


It is hard to say what Nuclear War is, beyond a journey through emotion. Like a painting or a piece of music, it gives you a context, but what you read into it is up to you. I suspect it helps if you are, or if you know, members of a growing demographic: older women anxiously contemplating years and even decades on their own. Immersed in Beattie's world, we see how terrifying it is to be isolated - that each of us can be reduced to a teardrop in the ocean of humanity.

In conclusion: We're witnessing more a nuclear winter than a Nuclear War. It may be a bit too airy-fairy if you like clear narratives.  There is however a fabulous young cast - Gerrome Miller, Beatrice Scirocco, Andrew Sheridan, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster - who prowl and growl and prance around Beattie maintaining constant momentum and tension.


Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1.  Run ends May 6.

Picture taken from The Times