REVIEW: One Jab Cures All at The Tabard Theatre 14 – 31 Jan 2026

‘riotous fun’ ★★★ ½

COVID-19 cannot help but come to mind when watching One Jab Cures All. With its chronic mentions of face masks, vaccines and AstraZeneca jabs, it does well to draw a laugh out of an audience surely reminded of difficult memories. Directed by Matthew Parker, the former Artistic Director of The Hope Theatre and written by Lloyd Evans, the Spectator’s freelance hack, all elements of this work have bonded together quite well. It's a jovial burlesque about a pharmaceutical company which certainly pricks its audience into a few chuckles.

The plot, though highly improbable, doesn’t pretend to be high drama and feels like a tongue-in-cheek news report on the 2020’s. Max (Rob Pomfret), a 40-something scientist with humanitarian ideals has discovered the wonder cure for all the world’s diseases. If this all sounds too good to be true, his snobby boss Judy (Sophie MacKall), the very embodiment of middle management, reminds him that company policy is concerned with unloading it out to the rich first and brings the play somewhat back to earth. Max steals a few samples, and Judy responds by taking his teenage daughter, named Felicity (Lauren Whitehall), as hostage. Once again, fanciful but riotous fun, steers the plot onwards.

As a farce, One Jab Cures All, works a treat.  If Felicity is a representation of formative years under the spell of the digital age, we all have something to worry about. Pomfret’s Max is commanding in both voice and gesture even if and, only on occasion, lines were lost in his all too genteel accent. Sophie MacKall gives a convincing portrayal of a woman vastly out of touch with the rest of her workers but often, her character feels little more than a cartoon of bureaucracy. It is when characters work in conjunction, arguing over who tests the vaccine or threatening each other with a gun made with a 3D printer that this play comes to life.

Tech and stage design complemented each other to considerable effect. With simple lighting cues and location changes, danger presents itself and the pace is picked up, as the plot unravels to its bizarre conclusion. Not to mention, that The Tabard’s familiar black is replaced by jarring white panels that immediately set the scene for a science lab.

Overall, the show does not handle the healthcare system and large pharma companies with care or compassion but that is exactly the point. In making a burlesque out of cures, vaccines and the rest, it pokes fun out of many of the bad memories that have lingered over our country for the last years. To put it simply, it gives us a much-needed laugh.

Lumbago Theatre Company presents

ONE JAB CURES ALL

by Lloyd Evans

Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick

14 – 31 January 2026

Box Office https://tabard.org.uk/whats-on/one-jab-cures-all/

Cast

Starring:

Rob Pomfret

Sophie Mackall

Lauren Whitehill

Jay Warn

Creatives

Director: Matthew Parker

Designer: Alice Carroll

Lighting Designer: Nat Green

Sound Designer: Beth Scott

Information

Running Time: One hour 50 minutes including an interval

Booking to 31st January 2026 Wednesdays to Saturdays

Theatre:

Tabard Theatre

Theatre at the Tabard

2 Bath Road

Tube: Turnham Green