The reviews are in for Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, Simon Reade’s adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s trilogy of 1920s London novels, running at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 17 October. Directed by Matthew Iliffe for Troupe, it follows a barman with a novel in him, the sex worker he is ruinously infatuated with, and the barmaid who quietly loves him. Most critics agree the compression is deftly done and the company is a strong one — Yanexi Enriquez, Jordan Scowen, Rosalind Lailey and Michael Maloney are all singled out — but several find the relationships underpowered, and the evening a little cool for a story this bleak.
The verdict: sixteen reviews in so far — five four-star notices, nine three-star and one at two, an average of 3.3 out of 5 across the fifteen that carry a rating, with The Times behind a paywall and publishing no public score. The cast draws praise across the board, and most critics admire Simon Reade’s compression of Patrick Hamilton’s three novels into one evening; where they part company is on whether the adaptation digs deep enough into the relationships it sets up.
What are critics saying about Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky?
The Reviews Hub
Reviewer: John Cutler
“You can make a man wait tables and serve drinks when all he wants to be is an author”, says emasculated pub barman Bob wistfully (Jordan Scowen) as Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky opens. Bob is not alone in dreaming of something different. But nobody in this story, adapted with economy, flair, and precision by Simon Reade from Patrick Hamilton’s trilogy, really gets what they want. Unrequited desire, loneliness, lack of money, and alcohol get in the way.
West End Best Friend
Reviewer: Chris Abbott
“The central strength of the production is the ability of this group of actors to bring believable vulnerability to these flawed characters. Even Lucy Gray, in a trio of small parts, makes much of the opportunities she is given. Jordan Scowen, playing Bob, is by turns innocent and needy, his masochism revealed slowly as we learn the complexity of his character. As Jenny’s threatening customer George, Alex Bhat is adept at sudden sinister insinuations; never has a boiled egg been served with such underlying menace.”
The Spy in the Stalls
Reviewer: Jonathan Evans
“Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky” is a wonderfully structured play, even if we are often thrown by its shifting and episodic nature. But once we are familiar with the framing, it is gorgeously fluid and dreamlike. By necessity, a condensed version of the novels, but full of their flavour.
London Pub Theatres
“rich and engaging adaptation”
Reviewer: Nilgün Yusuf
“The characters, their needs and wants are all clearly wrought and the cast is engaging and entertaining. Michael Maloney as Ernest Eccles brings a wealth of thespian experience to the role. Performative and theatrical, he offers great comic timing twined with moments of intense sadness. Yanexi Enriquez dazzles as Jenny Maple. With her marcel waved hair and purple fur-collared coat, she plays her role with seductive, persuasive charm. Formally, a factory worker and domestic servant, the economic circumstances around her professional switch are powerfully demonstrated. When she is preyed upon by George Perry, a sneering, disingenuous, amoral middle-class man, who plasters her with drink and rapes her, she falls with hesitancy, nuance and feeling into a different social strata and world. Alex Bhatt as George Perry is unspeakably odious as the toffee-nosed predator, a lizard in sock suspenders. Jenny didn’t have a chance.”
Plays International
Reviewer: David Wootton
“Now Simon Reade has produced a fresh adaptation of that trilogy for the stage, which is sensitively directed by Matthew Iliffe and movingly performed by the theatre company Troupe at Southwark Playhouse Borough. The result is a surprisingly fine distillation brought vividly to life.”
The Guardian
“The bell tolls for Patrick Hamilton’s lost Londoners”
Reviewer: Chris Wiegand
“The central young characters are each shown to seem old before their time. It’s there in the way Yanexi Enriquez’s Jenny uses a world-weary “dear” and how Rosalind Lailey’s Ella must dig deep not to make do with the fastidious and appropriately named Ernest, whom Michael Maloney turns into a study of later-life disquiet. Maloney excels at a nice bit of comic business with a hat and there is a vein of uneasy humour but more menace is needed across the production, which never fully captures the trilogy’s jaundiced prose or more squalid locations. Jordan Scowen’s Bob switches well between being intoxicated, crestfallen and disgusted with Jenny but should plumb greater depths of despair.”
Time Out
Reviewer: Harald Speirs
“It’s slow paced as well and the two-hour stage piece often falters only to be saved by blessed moments of sheer brilliance: magical jazz dancing, moments of intoxicated rage and touching scenes of youthful discontent.”
WhatsOnStage
Reviewer: Alun Hood
“Staged with the audience on all four sides, Iliffe’s production has a dark vitality and absolute mastery of the space, while taking the story at a cracking pace. Designer Ellie Wintour employs a bare minimum of props and furnishings, having Alex Musgrave (lighting) and Elizabeth Purcell (composer and sound) do the heavy lifting to evoke the murky London streets, interiors genteel and sordid, a jazz club dance floor and the Midnight Bell public house.”
The Stage
“Oozes pungent atmosphere”
Reviewer: Sam Marlowe
theartsdesk
“short, sharp and a bit superficial”
Reviewer: Aleks Sierz
“Love in Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is problematic. The desires of Bob and Eccles are examples of male fantasy, both being infatuated and seeing themselves as masculine saviours. They project their needs onto women, who certainly don’t feel the same. Upper-class Perry is a drunken predatory bastard. By contrast, the women are more complicated: Ella’s love of Bob is very restrained and unrequited, while Jenny swings erratically between returning Bob’s feelings and running away from him. Both have been damaged by their upbringing, their class status a definite disadvantage in the cruel world of Depression London.”
Everything Theatre
Reviewer: Tate Miller
“The stylised writing leans heavily on subtext producing dialogue that at times appears stilted. This artistic device isn’t always a negative – it can act as a shield, permitting audience engagement whilst distancing them from the unfolding tragedy. Whether intentional or not, this effect mirrors the characters’ own emotional disconnection and heightens the sense of isolation that permeates the piece.”
Plays To See
Reviewer: Jad Adams
“Character is foremost in a play about loneliness and desire presented on a bare set with a minimum of props. The cast play it out brilliantly, but ultimately the script is flat with no life-shaking reversals, just a simple representation of unrequited love in unsuitable relationships which would never work. As it is based on the original writer’s real experiences, it could be expected to be more heart-rending but in fact leaves us thinking depressingly: ‘Oh, yes, that’s life.’”
Theatre and Tonic
Reviewer: Becky
“What didn’t work as well was some of the chemistry between the characters. Encounters were rushed at times, meaning that the romantic elements felt less believable. Ella’s love for Bob was downplayed, and more tension-building embedded in the direction would help develop their connection. Likewise, Jenny’s behaviour was indistinguishable throughout the narrative, which made understanding her character more confusing.”
BroadwayWorld
Reviewer: Christiana Rose
“Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky offers a sombre journey through the streets of 1920s London, where dreams of love and escape are repeatedly confronted by heartache as a reality. Simon Reade’s adaptation is noble in introducing a lesser-known work to A Contemporary Theatre audience, supported by a committed cast and a production which honours Hamilton’s dark subject matter. However, its considerable potential is not fully realised, with the emotional distance from its characters ultimately limiting the power of its exploration of loneliness, exploitation and human connection.”
All That Dazzles
Reviewer: Ruth Sealey
“The cast work hard with the material but are never given an opportunity to reach deeper into their characters. Michael Maloney raises some laughs as Ernest Eccles, but is also a slightly uncomfortable presence as he forces kisses from a somewhat bemused Rosalind Lailey as Ella. I am still unsure why Ella is drawn to him, another sign of a lack of depth in the writing, which also fails to explore her unrequited love for Bob. George is an extremely unlikeable character, played with slightly juvenile glee by Alex Bhat. He is at his best when he plays more into the darker side of George, and seeing him tuck into a boiled egg while Jenny cringes and recoils from him following her assault the night before is a powerful moment.”
Also reviewed by Clive Davis in The Times, under the headline “Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky review — like Dickens with a hangover”, which finds Patrick Hamilton’s trilogy “somewhat squeezed at Southwark Playhouse, but still worth seeing”. The full notice sits behind the paper’s paywall, so it carries no quote here.
Production photographs by Mitzi de Margary.
More from the Southwark Playhouse stages and the rest of the London fringe in our recent review roundups, and across Best of Theatre News.
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 17 October 2026.
