REVIEW: and I looked at the sky by Tim Stubbs Hughes at Omnibus Theatre 15 September - 3 October 2026

“Two fine performances are lost in the mire” ★★

One day, we all have to face growing old. The central couple in and I looked at the sky are no exception. Betty is a celebrated artist. John is a celebrated writer. They have travelled the world, and now live together in their dream home in the countryside, looking over a garden bursting with homegrown vegetables and birdsong. None of that stops them from throwing a months-long festival of self-pity when they realise that they too must grow old. At this revelation, on the morning of Betty’s 86th birthday, the monologues begin.

Every incidental object of their lives is pregnant with symbolism and worthy of a monologue. Nothing escapes the monologue treatment: not a dress, not a photograph, not a beam of sunlight or a swirling dustmote. Foodstuffs are especially susceptible. When a cake, carrot, cheese sandwich, bowl of soup, cup of tea, or bottle of champagne enter the stage, the characters are off again on a poetical odyssey into their greatest regrets, their terrible nightmares, the things they can’t do anymore, the ways in which they’ve failed each other.

Ostensibly a duologue, this is monologue ping-pong; his and hers existentialism. The most unfortunate cost of this leaden material is that two fine performances are lost in the mire. Mary Tillett as Betty and John Rayment as John manage to deliver genuinely detailed and subtle work.

Turning to the design elements, and I looked at the sky is chronically overlit. A scene with a bonfire appears to be set in Satan’s inferno. A flickering television brings to mind a lighting storm. Although the couple are almost always moping about a dining table in the centre, the entire playing space is often fully illuminated, along with the front few rows of the audience for good measure. The set and costumes are effective, but with lighting like this, you’re just as likely to be focusing on the hairline of the audience member in front of you as the action on stage.

The sound design is mostly tragic violins. What else?

Perhaps this is too harsh. There’s no doubt that making theatre is hard. Even here, it takes real creativity, courage, and commitment. Performance is hard. Ageing is hard. Life is hard. But do we really need to be bashed over the head with it?

and I looked at the sky is at the Omnibus Theatre 15 September - 3 October

Tickets: omnibus-clapham.org/whatson/and-i-looked-at-the-sky

20 South Street in association with Grey Swan presents the World Premiere of and I looked at the sky by Tim Stubbs Hughes at the Omnibus Theatre.

Directed by Julia Stubbs | With Mary Tillett and John Rayment.

Lighting Design by Jonathan Samules. Sound Design by James Connor.

Photographer Credit:

Samuel Brooks