The reviews are in for The Moth, Paul Herzberg’s play about a Black British journalist and a white South African ex-soldier whose chance meeting on a train binds them together for thirty years. Drawn partly from the playwright’s own conscription during the Angolan Border War, it is now receiving its London premiere at the Finborough Theatre after touring the north of England in 2025, with Jake Murray directing Faz Singhateh as John Josana and Micky Cochrane as Marius Muller. The critics divide sharply: a few call it searing and urgent, while the larger group respect the subject and the two actors but find the play overlong, repetitive and too reliant on direct address.
3.2 / 5 from 12 criticsThe verdict: twelve reviews in so far, every one of them rated, and they could hardly sit further apart: a five-star notice, a four-and-a-half and three fours at one end, three threes in the middle, and four two-star reviews at the other, an average of 3.2 out of 5. The split is over the writing. The admirers find a gripping study of guilt and forgiveness; the doubters see a ten-minute monologue stretched to two hours, more history lesson than drama. On the acting there is more common ground, with most critics giving both men credit for the sheer weight of what they carry.
What are critics saying about The Moth?
View from the Gods
Reviewer: Simon Jenner
Jenner is the most enthusiastic critic by some distance. He rates Cochrane’s Marius as a remarkable piece of acting, admires the coiled restraint Singhateh brings to John, and credits the design team with turning a small stage into studio, train carriage and office in turn.
"Even without one of these Q&As, this is one of the most searing and probing theatre works around."
He allows that the mix of narration and confrontation looked bitty early on, but says it soon settles into a run of astonishing scenes.
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews
Reviewer: Elaine C
Elaine C is struck by the true story behind the play and by the argument about nature and upbringing that runs through both men.
"A multi layered play dealing with misguided parenting, the damage and long-term effects from trauma and ptsd…"
She admits it is a hard watch in places, and says she left more worried about Marius’s future than she expected to be.
Read Elaine C’s full review at Theatre, Art and Film Reviews
The Reviews Hub
"Visceral apartheid drama"
Reviewer: Fiona Paterson
Paterson finds both performances electrifying and the staging nimble, with back projection doing much of the scene-setting.
"Paul Herzberg’s tense, riveting drama examines the factors that drive hatred and the role of forgiveness in reconciliation."
Her reservation is length. She thinks Herzberg repeats his points and leans on too many coincidences, and that the sustained fury of both performances can leave an audience feeling lectured at.
Everything Theatre
“An intense, thought-provoking play about the seeds of hatred and forgiveness”
Reviewer: Shelley Fiveash
Shelley Fiveash finds an ambitious study of trauma and forgiveness, in which unexpected parallels emerge between the two men as their stories unfold.
“Director Jake Murray skilfully weaves a complex story, drawing powerful performances from both actors.”
She finds the dialogue heavy on exposition and close to preachy at times, and thinks the projections could be used more imaginatively.
ReviewsGate
“Powerful performances overlong play.”
Reviewer: William Russell
William Russell thinks the two performances are the main reason to go, but finds the expanded monologue overlong, repetitive and at times bewildering.
“director Jake Murray really should have tightened the piece so that it moved much more speedily”
Even so, he finds that everything comes together as the evening goes on, and admires the Finborough’s spare set.
London Pub Theatres Magazine
"The set-up promises a powder keg of drama, but the play never quite manages to light it."
Reviewer: Katie Walker-Cook
Walker-Cook likes Amelia Mitchell’s spare set and rates both actors highly.
"Singhateh’s John bristles with a furiously contained rage, while Cochrane’s Marius swings between easy-going affability and explosive anger."
Her problem is structural: because we know from the start that the two men end up together in a television studio, she argues, the confrontations along the way lose their danger, and she never fully believes what keeps drawing them back to each other.
Read Katie Walker-Cook’s full review at London Pub Theatres Magazine
The Arts Desk
“Apartheid's legacy lingering like a bad smell”
Reviewer: Gary Naylor
Gary Naylor credits Jake Murray with drawing deeply emotional, often understated performances from Faz Singhateh and Micky Cochrane, and finds the play a useful corrective to complacency about the end of apartheid.
“Herzberg’s writing never lets the tension dissipate, but it’s punctuated by too many direct address monologues”
He thinks two hours is a long time in such a pressure cooker, and suspects a tighter 90-minute version is hiding inside it.
LondonTheatre1
“just too long”
Reviewer: John Groves
John Groves enjoyed much of the first act, and thinks Faz Singhateh gives the dense script as much life and variety as it allows.
“The Moth is just too long and runs out of steam well before the end”
He finds the second half repetitive and preachy, and recommends it mainly to those who already know the politics of the period.
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Ruth Sealey
Sealey asks why a prize-winning ten-minute monologue needed to become a two-hour play, and decides the production never gives a convincing answer. It is at its best, she says, when the two men are simply left to talk to each other.
"…often The Moth feels more like a history lesson rather than a piece of theatre."
She also finds the jumps in time and place hard to follow, and the design too similar from one location to the next to help.
First Night Magazine
"Dusty play doesn’t emerge from its cocoon"
Reviewer: Guillermo Názara
Názara grants that the premise is promising and raises real questions about forgiveness and reparation, but blames the dramaturgy for wasting it, from two long expository speeches at the top to character arcs he finds shallow.
"All of this makes The Moth a promising but clumsy play in the long run…"
He judges the acting competent but rarely more than that.
London Box Office
Reviewer: Stuart King
King finds the opening weighed down by exposition, and the play more interested in recounting South African history than in making us feel anything for the two men; it only loosens when the memories become personal.
"However, the idea underpinning the meeting (which causes their life paths to overlap), feels intrinsically woolly, unfocused and worst of all, rather dull."
He does credit both actors with mastering a long and winding text.
Read About Stuff
The review respects the authenticity of Herzberg’s account of apartheid and sees a strong story at its core, but finds that the two men’s traumas echo each other rather than adding up to something more. It also faults direction that pushes the actors towards melodrama, and too many monologues.
"With neither character budging, the piece spends two hours saying something that seems a given from the first five minutes."
The scenes the two actors share, it says, are the best thing in the evening, and there are too few of them.
For more from the fringe, see our roundups of What the Animals Say, which played the Finborough earlier this autumn, and The Revlon Girl at Park Theatre.
The Moth runs at the Finborough Theatre until Saturday 21 November 2026. The running time is approximately two hours including an interval, and post-show Q&As follow the performances on 5, 12 and 19 November.
For more information, visit the official website.
