JUST BE A GOOD PERSON, ACTUALLY at Circle & Star Theatre 17-18 October 2026
“inventive staging, committed performances and an appealingly dark premise.”★★★
Written by and starring Julia Pagett, JUST BE A GOOD PERSON, ACTUALLY explores a marriage in purgatory, where Felicity and Lucas are trapped reliving the last day of their relationship. Against a hellish and surreal afterlife, infidelity, resentment and the consequences of their decisions come under scrutiny.
The cast deliver strong performances, particularly Natasha Mula and Joshua Glenister, who multi-role with impressive versatility, shifting between characters that range from the couple’s obnoxious drunken friends to squabbling afterlife employees.
Director Andrew Hollingworth, who also plays Lucas, makes some imaginative staging choices. An early sequence using umbrellas is particularly effective, while a trolley is cleverly repurposed as everything from a bus stop to a reception desk. Later, Felicity and Lucas zip around the stage on wheeled chairs as Lucas drives recklessly, the precisely timed movement and sound effects working well together. Sudden shifts in sound and lighting, contorted voices and unsettling physical postures evoke the uncanny nature of the afterlife. Bureaucracy also gets a merciless roasting, with even the business of being dead requiring forms to be completed and appointments booked in advance.
The dialogue feels naturalistic, and Pagett has a good ear for a dry line, with Felicity delivering some sharply funny deadpan put-downs. But the quips become a recurring defence mechanism. Whether she is talking to Lucas or the other characters she encounters, opportunities for a more revealing exchange are repeatedly deflected with another joke. The repetition gradually stalls the story and keeps Felicity at an emotional distance, while greater glimpses of the vulnerability beneath her indifference might have made her emotional journey more compelling.
The storyline feels like a series of disconnected episodes rather than a cohesive narrative. This fragmentation may be purposeful, reflecting the characters’ own confusion at being trapped in limbo, but it makes the first half of the play difficult to follow. The structure sometimes obscures the central relationship rather than deepening it.
Lucas and Felicity’s respective adulteries, followed by a late emotional revelation, risk pushing the play towards melodramatic territory. A more focused exploration of the lead-up to the breakdown of their marriage might have given the story greater emotional weight and allowed us a better understanding of what brought these two people to breaking point.
Ultimately, JUST BE A GOOD PERSON, ACTUALLY has inventive staging, committed performances and an appealingly dark premise, but its uneven storytelling and limited development of the central relationship mean it doesn’t quite deliver the emotional impact it could.
Box Office: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/circleandstar/2256639?date=2026-10-20
Reviewer Annie Power is a London-based playwright, screenwriter, producer and theatre reviewer. Her work has been staged at venues across London, including Soho Theatre and The Old Red Lion Playhouse, and she won Best Writer at Underwire Film Festival. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Open Page Productions.
