COUNTERATTACK: YOUTH, Lambeth Fringe at Bread and Roses Theatre 14 and 15 October 2026



“Counterattack: Youth is a warm, funny portrayal of a group of friends driven by a talented cast.” ★★★ ½

“Your twenties are for borrowing, your thirties are for paying back”. Four Korean Millennial women gather in a bar to catch-up and off-load about the pressures of modern life. They laugh, they sing, they take selfies. The group were high school friends, and Yuna (Mireia Espulga) is about to get married, and it could almost be a typical hen night. But this is not a straight-forward reunion. The fun-filled rituals of modern friendship can’t disguise the pressures these young people face. Whether it’s the impossibility of the long hours faced by Sarah (Lia Lee) in her job, or the reality of Yuna being unable to get a position as a barista despite being highly qualified.

Part of the Lambeth Fringe, the play is set in a bar and the production is played out in the Bread and Roses’ back room. The audience blend in with the foursome, who could just be another seemingly happy and boisterous group at the next table. Directed by Gain (Amy) Park (who also writes), the play never uses audience participation in an excruciating way. We are at the edge of the action and are sometimes asked to make a toast, but mostly remain focused on the loud table in the middle of the room.

The play is mainly fun in the first half, but gradually darker themes become more prominent. Perhaps the mysterious Sarah is simply just exhausted and busy, desperate to get a foothold in a design career but stuck in a junior position despite her qualifications and intelligence. And perhaps Ella’s (Hazel Oh) confidence and jollity mask a relatively simple desire to settle down, which has turned out to not be so straightforward after all. But it is the exuberant Hannah (Siyun Leem) that provides the emotional core of the play, delivering the evening’s most sombre moment. What is the cost of getting married young and giving your best years away to someone else, only to separate?

Counterattack: Youth is a warm, funny portrayal of a group of friends driven by a talented cast. It is not afraid to go into greater depth and get darker at times, and it’s a shame we don’t get to learn even more about the characters. An engaging, watchable part of the Lambeth fringe.   

COUNTERATTACK: YOUTH written and directed by Gain (Amy) Park at Bread and Roses Theatre 14 and 15 October 2026

Produced by Euna Ko, Annie Kyung, and Jaemin Yu 

Box Office https://lambethfringe.com/events/counterattack--youth

CAST

Hannah – Siyun Leem

Ella – Hazel Oh

Yuna – Mireia Espulga

Sarah – Lia Lee

Photo credit: Yusuf Bhaimia

Reviewer ANDY CURTIS is a playwright who regularly has plays performed in London fringe theatre. He graduated from three cohorts of the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers Programme.