Grave Matters by Mackie Reyes at Lion & Unicorn Theatre 3 – 6 August 2026

‘A horror-comedy well-balanced at times, though ultimately too difficult to engage with.’ ★★

 ‘If God were British, there wouldn’t be a judgment day, there’d be an eternal inquiry’, says The Maniac, in Accidental Death of an Anarchist, mocking the efforts of the police to replace a spiritual understanding with bureaucratic red-tape. The cast of Mackie Reyes’ Grave Matters attack this idea in a succinct 45 minute horror-comedy, exploring the heavy weight of ancestral tradition, but the crowded production ultimately fails to address this.

The production opens in the aftermath of a strange crime. The accused (Miss Y, Mackie Reyes) is transported to a sterile police station, where a ‘good cop, bad cop’ duo attempt to process her spiritual motivations. Throughout this, Miss Y battles to maintain a connection with the divine and the audience through asides, an escape from the atmosphere of the police station, asking God ‘what would you say if you were me?’ The police characters are balanced well against Miss Y, and the cast are able to create the necessary tension to get the play going.

I don’t believe that the structure of the play does the concepts justice, as these asides come and go unnaturally, combining too many unconnected elements to be coherent. The play approaches some really interesting themes but doesn’t give itself enough time to develop them fully, leaving a collection of unresolved concepts that don’t give the final scene any weight. While Reyes is able to balance dark humour with genuine suspense at times, the show is thematically undefined and difficult to engage with.

As ghost/horror stories find more attention on our stages, I’d love to see how Reyes’ story develops.

Coatlicue Theatre present

GRAVE MATTERS by Mackie Reyes at Lion & Unicorn Theatre 3 – 6 August 2026

Directed by Megan Brewer

Part of Camden Fringe

BOX OFFICE https://camdenfringe.com/events/grave-matters/

Cast: Mackie Reyes, James Schilling, Bedwyr Bowen, Marnie Yule

Lighting designer: Daisy Harwick