The reviews are in for Dolly, Charlotte Ashton’s new play at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham, which runs until Saturday 7 November. It is a 75-minute one-woman show from PlayGC Theatre Company: Jessica Clark plays Dolly, a waitress and stand-up comic whose life comes apart after she is raped on her way home from work, and who then finds that the criminal justice system has very little to offer her. Anthony Biggs directs. Eight notices have landed so far, all from the independent and local press, and they are about as warm as the fringe gets: three five-star reviews, and no critic who scores it goes below four. Clark is the point on which every one of them agrees. The reservations are few and specific, an ending one critic found abrupt and moments where the sound and lighting push harder than the story needs.
4.7 / 5 from 5 criticsThe verdict: eight reviews in so far, none of them yet from the national papers. Five carry a rating, three at five stars, one at four and a half and one at four, which puts the average at 4.7 out of 5; the British Theatre Guide, southlondon.co.uk and OnLondon publish no score. The praise is close to unanimous for Jessica Clark, who plays Dolly and everyone she meets, and for the way Charlotte Ashton’s script sets stand-up comedy against hard figures on rape prosecutions. Where the critics part company it is on detail: Theatre Weekly finds the sound and light effects heavy at times, London Pub Theatres calls the ending abrupt, and Rev Stan says the rapid switches between characters can be hard to follow.
What are critics saying about Dolly?
The Reviews Hub
“Pertinent take on sexual assault”
Reviewer: Clare Doyle
“Ashton’s writing is fierce in its outrage yet consistently hilarious, with the sharp quips of a stand-up comic landing with ease.”
Doyle picks out the moment the words ‘sexual assault’ vanish under white noise as Dolly reports the attack, a device that returns in later scenes, and credits Roly Botha’s sound design with catching how trauma breaks up memory. She finds the production slick enough to deserve a further life, and calls it a hard watch but a necessary one.
Rev Stan’s Theatre Blog
Reviewer: Rev Stan
“It’s an angry piece with just enough humour to temper it and will no doubt spark plenty of conversation.”
The review warns that the play is not always easy to sit through, and expects most women in the audience to recognise something in it. The stand-up sections, including a running joke that turns #notallmen into ‘No Tall Men’, release the tension, although the speed of Clark’s changes between characters is sometimes hard to keep up with.
The Recs
“Ain’t nothin’ plastic about this Dolly!”
Reviewer: Steve Coats-Dennis
“Balancing these figures with Jessica Clark’s unnerving wit is what makes Dolly a satisfying piece of theatre.”
Coats-Dennis notes that the audience is filmed and shown on the back wall as it takes its seats, and reads Ash Özüak’s design as a mirror turned on the room. He praises Clark for giving each of at least six characters a distinct manner, and values a play that will not hand its audience the comfort of a just ending.
London Pub Theatres
“A captivating, well-written, urgently relevant piece of work.”
Reviewer: Albertine Sins
“Jessica Clark’s performance is nothing less than exceptional.”
Sins admires how thoroughly the script is researched, from Dolly’s workplace to her life at home with her boyfriend, and calls Anthony Biggs’ direction slick and precise. Her reservations are an opening stand-up set whose purpose takes a moment to become clear and an ending she found abrupt, but she still rates it a must-see.
Theatre Weekly
“a brutally honest and raw, reflective and considerate piece of writing”
Reviewer: Katie Shaw
“It’s a performance that is at once courageous and brave, angry and infuriating, and Clark is utterly captivating.”
Shaw calls the script sharp and very funny as well as unsparing, and likes the way it draws Dolly’s boyfriend as loving yet unable to give her what she needs. Her one complaint is that the bursts of sound and light sometimes underline what Clark is already conveying, to the point of distracting from the play’s themes.
British Theatre Guide
Reviewer: Rebecca Clifton
“Dolly is one of those rare pieces of theatre that is exceptionally executed, outstandingly acted and petrifyingly poignant.”
Clifton places the play alongside Prima Facie and Inter Alia as a drama about the aftermath of sexual assault, and describes Clark as a powerhouse whose slow decline as Dolly never tips into hysteria. She also commends Skylar Turnbull Hurd’s lighting and Biggs’ pacing, and urges readers to go.
southlondon.co.uk
“Cracks in her veneer open up to allow the trauma out”
Reviewer: Christopher Peacock
“Jessica Clark’s performance is bright yet haunting.”
Peacock sets the play against how little has changed for women since #MeToo, and describes how the stand-up routines, the short scenes and a live camera feed trained on the audience fit together. He finds the balance of humour and hard reality well judged, and expects the piece to leave a lasting mark on those who see it.
OnLondon
“A play about sexual assault and its devastating, sometimes ludicrous, aftermath”
Reviewer: Dave Hill
“DOLLY is an insightful, often harrowing but also adroitly humanising contribution to illuminating all that needs to change.”
Hill, who has written about the London Assembly’s scrutiny of rape cases, says seeing the play in Clapham gave it an extra charge, and praises the energy Clark brings to a run of men who fail Dolly and women who cannot help her. He declares that one of PlayGC’s founders is a friend of his site.
For the latest critical verdicts from London’s other fringe stages, see our roundups of The Master Builder at the Arcola Theatre and The Pianist at the Park Theatre.
Dolly runs at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham until Saturday 7 November 2026, with a captioned performance on Sunday 1 November and a post-show discussion on Wednesday 28 October.
For more information, visit the official website.
