REVIEW: There Is A Light And A Whistle for Attracting Attention at The Hen & Chickens Theatre 8 – 13 September 2026
‘...riveting, wound-parading monologue’ ★★★
The woman before us has no name but a story to tell. Agitated, wild-eyed and manic in her movements, she tries to make sense of and pick apart where her marriage and relationship failed. As we track back through the relationship, dipping into fairy tales, Disney, Celine Dion, the Bible and female archetypes, fact blends with fiction, fantasy crashes into reality and the audience considers this impassioned version by a narrator who may not be wholly reliable.
LAMDA-trained writer and performer, Henri Merriam, gives an emotionally charged, physical performance in this 75-minute, wound-parading monologue, originally presented in 2025. Her body, expressions and voice are fully utilised to attack her raw subject matter. She experiences bitter disappointment and quiet devastation when her partner fails to meet her needs. As they falter and drift, “the house is cold but our bed, colder,” her humiliation and rejection is as fresh and painful as Eve being slung from the Garden of Eden for independent thought - and this comparison is made.
He does have a name. Tom is a blokey, traditional cattle farmer to her flighty, highly-strung actress persona. He is represented by a series of flat, disinterested voice-overs. He meets her obsessive traits with retreat and stoicism. She teaches him numerous words of more than two syllables including "facetious" and "incompatible." This detail, an aside really, makes her character seem patronising and less likeable. For Valentine's Day, he buys her a gooseberry bush - 'sharp, spiky, prickly and bitter' - because it reminds him of her. She should have realised then. Or perhaps when he hit the bird with his car. Or…
If this were a reality TV show, the audience would be shouting: ‘Don’t do it! He’s not the right one.’ When he gets all antsy because she won’t change her surname or performs a volte face on the issue of having children, these red flags are willfully or idealistically ignored. There’s nothing more tragic than an unloved or scorned woman and this sense of betrayal and loss is toe-curlingly conveyed. There is life after divorce, one can be fun, and after all the turmoil experienced by the audience, a greater sense of clarity and learning would have lightened the conclusion, which feels more self-indulgent than self-reflective.
Monologues by their very nature give one interpretation or perception. This is their joy - and can be their agony - depending on whose head an audience finds themselves in. Here, the performance is riveting while the narrative, sometimes overblown or florid, is challenging. We see a woman obsessed with love and blinded by its force. She thunders headlong into her first meaningful relationship only to find herself in a strange land, misunderstood and unheard, with a stranger who speaks a different language and both are trapped in something dysfunctional. All the feminist theory in the world can’t negate the fact this is an ill-matched coupling and that there are two victims, which makes you wonder how it would fare as a duologue in another iteration. Whichever way you look at it, love hurts. Ain’t that the truth?
There Is a Light and a Whistle by Henri Merriam at Hen & Chickens Theatre from the 8 – 13 September
Writer and performer: Henri Merriam
Director: Sophia Capasso
Sound Designer: Frazer Merrick
Designer: Shahaf Beer
Producer: Marcello Pautasso
London Technician: Emily Wilson
Presented by Play Nicely Theatre
Photography Credit: Scott Golding
Sub-Edited by Harry Speirs
