The reviews are in for The Hungry Ghost, the debut play by Mei Leng Yew, which opened at the Bush Theatre on Monday 5 October in a co-production with New Earth Theatre. A young woman picks up a coin on the first day of the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts and finds herself possessed by a spirit with an appetite for food, sex and everything she has been denying herself, on the very day she is secretly moving in with her girlfriend. The notices are among the warmest of the autumn. Mei Mac’s quick-change turn as Girl and nearly everyone around her is the common thread, Isabella Wei’s ghost wins almost as much praise, and the dissent, such as it is, concerns pacing and how far the horror really frightens.
The verdict: twelve reviews in so far, and a warm reception: four five-star notices, five four-star, one three-and-a-half and one three, with one review carrying no rating we could read. Across the eleven that score, the average is 4.2 out of 5. Every critic praises Mei Mac, who plays Girl and almost everyone in her life; where they differ is on how well the horror half of the horror-comedy lands.
What are critics saying about The Hungry Ghost?
Theatre Weekly
Reviewer: Jake Wiafe
Wiafe is struck by how efficient and well built Mei Leng Yew’s script is for so wild a premise, with a first act that sets out the rules so every later turn feels earned.
"The Hungry Ghost as a production simply gets everything right."
He credits Yimei Zhao’s set and the sound and lighting of Carla Ng and Cheng Keng for the scares, and finds Mei Mac and Isabella Wei outstanding as Girl and Ghost.
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Bronagh
Bronagh finds the play warm and very funny, using the folklore to talk about control over one’s own life and body, and building to an ending that casts everything before it in a new light.
"Mei Leng Yew has written a play that deserves a huge audience."
She singles out Mac for making every character she plays distinct, and Wei for a ghost whose facial expressions had her laughing throughout.
Read About Stuff
Reviewer: Dan English
English calls Mac’s lead a complete performance, with a binge in a supermarket as its comic peak, and thinks Wei’s ghost just as strong.
"This is an eye-popping, delightfully delirious debut work. Blisteringly funny but also deeply moving"
He admires how Ailin Conant’s production knows when to shock and when to pull back.
Adventures in Theatreland
Reviewer: Julie Fisher
Fisher enjoys the gusto with which Mac populates the stage with supporting characters, and the way Conant’s direction and Jasmine Chiu’s movement have Girl and Ghost mirror one another as if sharing one body.
"…The Hungry Ghost is the perfect addition to your spooky season lineup this October."
She finds Wei menacing and funny in equal measure, and the writing sure-footed in its balance of fear, laughter and warmth.
Read Julie Fisher’s full review at Adventures in Theatreland
WhatsOnStage
Reviewer: Sonny Waheed
Waheed compares the writer to Roald Dahl for the depth beneath a playful surface, and reads the possession as both frightening and liberating for a young woman caught between family duty and her own desires.
"For a first-time playwright, The Hungry Ghost is a confident and wonderfully original piece of writing"
Mac’s many characters anchor the evening, in his view, with Wei a match for her, and Conant makes a two-hander feel like an ensemble piece.
LondonTheatre.co.uk
"The outstanding Mei Mac makes a striking play all the more compelling"
Reviewer: Anya Ryan
Ryan recalls Mac’s Olivier-nominated turn in My Neighbour Totoro and finds the same transformative skill at work here, and enjoys a mix of romance and body horror played out under Cheng Keng’s pink light.
"…this play more than establishes Leng Yew as a very original and perceptive writer."
Her one reservation is a final ghost speech that she thinks needs a little more space and clarity.
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Seth Wilby
Wilby notes the four-act structure borrowed from classical Chinese poetry and finds the piece at its best as a romantic comedy, with the horror stronger in concept than in execution.
"It’s sexy, it’s funny, it’s heartwarming, and, most importantly, it feels deeply original."
He rates Jasmine Chiu’s movement among the smartest he has seen and calls Mac’s shapeshifting extraordinary, though he finds the plot a little thin before the interval.
Liam O’Dell
"Sexy and satiating supernatural horror"
Reviewer: Liam O’Dell
O’Dell credits Conant’s breakneck direction and the synergy between Mac and Wei, and enjoys a set whose hidden compartments keep producing surprises.
"This whizzing, wildly funny supernatural horror is a theatrical feast."
His reservations are that the Cantonese passages lack the body language to carry their meaning to non-speakers, and that the play draws no clear lesson, which he says hardly matters.
Red Bus Londinium
The reviewer relishes Yew’s writing of the mother, recognisable from a childhood spent around a Malaysian-Chinese family, and praises a versatile Mac and a sensual, physical Wei.
"Director Ailin Conant keeps the pace sharp, with the story constantly pressing forward."
The pace can feel hurried at times, and the gentle ending left a wish for more of the Ghost’s life before death.
The Reviews Hub
"Hilarious but arcane"
Reviewer: Susan Elkin
Elkin finds it warm, funny and beautifully directed and acted, with Mac terrific across a string of voices and a set-piece with a whole chicken that she calls priceless.
"It’s enjoyable and worth seeing – expect to laugh a lot – but it isn’t flawless."
Her reservations: much of it leans on Chinese culture that outsiders may miss, the last 20 minutes turn abruptly darker, and the ending runs on too long.
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Katie Kirkpatrick
Kirkpatrick finds Mac immediately likeable and admires Jasmine Chiu’s movement work, which she places somewhere between puppetry and a pas de deux.
"Each individual element of the production is executed with moments of brilliance"
Her reservation is that it never quite delivers as folk horror, with the first half settling into a predictable pattern, though Carla Ng’s sound supplies some excellent jump scares.
Voice Magazine
Reviewer: Moni Fernandez
Fernandez enjoys Yimei Zhao’s bright design, whose cupboards supply both scares and laughs, and above all the seamless way the two performers share their roles.
"Under Ailin Conant's slick direction, the production has impeccable rhythm, beautifully synchronised movement and consistently sharp pacing."
She calls the writing funny and sharp, building a world where superstition and modern life collide.
Production photographs by Corinne Cumming.
Read our earlier piece on the casting of Mei Mac and Isabella Wei, and for more from the critics, see our roundups of Affluenza at Riverside Studios and HAM at Soho Theatre.
The Hungry Ghost runs in the Studio at the Bush Theatre until Saturday 31 October 2026.
