REVIEW: We Dance in Fire at Golden Goose Theatre, 2 – 5 September 2026

‘a unique and effective interpretation’ ★★★★

Joe Judd’s debut play couples the age-old theme of witchcraft with contemporary attitudes towards conspiracy, rebellion and panic that we are all too familiar with. Olivia Baird leads a flawless cast as Sarah, under the conscious direction of Spiky Saul.

We are introduced to two sisters with clearly-defined contrasts; Sarah, a worn-down and tense government employee, and her peculiar sister Poppy (Hannah Sophia Wright) who is part of the anti-government ‘Collective’. What first starts as a simple domestic rivalry between siblings soon turns dark with the arrival of Jacob (Saqib Bashir). After Poppy notices a suspicious mark on her sister’s back, and a recently-adopted bird dies suddenly in the flat, accusations begin to fly.

The apocalyptic setting isn’t forced upon the audience; the play opens with Sarah scrolling through mindless content on her phone after work, gently building the idea. This abstraction of our idea of brain-rot is gradual, as we learn about the ‘Strays’ (those who are suspected of being witches), and the ‘Stink’ (the outside world itself). What strikes me most is how claustrophobic and close everything feels; all at the same time, the audience wonder who is living in the above flat, who is at the door, and who is beyond the window in the Stink. Plenty of mystery is kept around who the Strays are and what their aim is, keeping us uncomfortable throughout.

The sisters become more alike as the play moves on, both sharply contrasting with Jacob, and then even more so with Virtue (Jess Taverner) and Integrity (Hugo Gregg). The latter two characters are the most interesting part of the play. As allegorical characters often do, ‘V’ and ‘I’ satirize the world they exist in; uniquely, Judd builds these characters as twisted versions of their namesakes.

Allegorical characters (as far back as Piers Plowman and The Pilgrim’s Progress) typically guide central characters towards their virtues, but by reversing this effect, Judd shows how easily these values can be placed on any idea to create a powerful political tool - a unique and effective interpretation.

Although ‘V’ and ‘I’ are satirical characters, they are also quite slapstick, which slightly undermines the tone of the play. The complex form of these characters also means that their exit leaves that part of the story incomplete. Jacob’s introduction, in contrast, offers the right amount of comedy at the right place in the play.

As Judd wished, I certainly did leave the closing-night performance with a huge number of questions; less so about the world itself, but about the people in it. The claustrophobic nature of the play left me thinking about the answers for some time afterwards. ‘We all want a simple solution. I know I do.’

This was the closing night for what was surely a fantastic run at the Golden Goose, and I look forward to more work from this creative team and cast.



Riot Run Productions

Written by: Joe Judd

Directed and Designed by: Spiky Saul

Dramaturgy by: Sara Safi

Produced by: Oliver Judd and Joe Judd

Costume design by: Hannah Wickham

Intimacy coordination by: Lexie Woodroof

Lighting by: Kit Jamieson

Sound by: Ben Clarke

Stage management by: Oscar Maddocks

Set design consultancy by: Lily Booth

Painting by: Caroline Judd

Sub-Edited by Harry Speirs