REVIEW: You’ve Gone Quiet at Jack Studio Theatre 2 – 6 June 2026

‘highly engaging, funny and heartfelt’ ★★★★

We start on the character of Beth (Shane Convery), a trans woman aspiring to a career in journalism, who enjoys a situationship with Rory (Matt Vickery) a university lecturer who has his own issues with a laddish brother Gaz (Oliver Redpath). To help her through all this, Beth has her baby-obsessed friend Tara (Gennifer Becouarn) whose own boyfriend Ian (Matt Roberts) simply isn’t up to snuff, as well as her acerbic former colleague Samantha (Sophia Vi) who shares Beth’s ambitions but not her ethics.

The action kicks off with Tara making quite the unusual proposition to Beth for solving her and Ian’s frustration that soon has events spiraling out of control. What follows is a highly engaging, funny and heartfelt tales that tackles issues ranging from the highly current, such as transphobia and the manosphere, to the classic, such as what sustains fragile relationships and what exactly constitutes a family.

Throughout all this Cerys Duffy’s writing and Andy McLeod’s direction prove an exceptional partnership, with the many threads of Duffy’s writing balanced perfectly alongside McLeod’s sharp and active direction. It’s rare for scene transitions to be a highlight of a show, but thumping and effective light and sound from Katy Matthews takes us effortlessly through an array of locations and time jumps all while the actors themselves remain entirely in character. Masterful stuff, particularly in the first half of the show where Duffy brilliantly makes the audience a stand-in for a silent Beth.

The main problems come toward the end, however when the wide breadth of topics proves to be a bit too much to bring to a satisfying close. Everything feels rushed through as the show races toward a highly sentimental conclusion that has to reduce many of its characters more interesting and complex sides to simple caricatures so it can arrive where it wants to. Things wrap up, and it’s nice when we get there, but it all feels more forced than anything and falls short of the show’s high ambitions.

Regardless the first half of the show is some of the most entertaining and intelligent theatre you’ll see all year and the ensemble of actors are wonderful throughout; Redpath in particular gives a wonderfully warm and funny performance that takes what might otherwise be quite a simple character and adds so many nuances and idiosyncrasies that one can barely take their eye off him, though he faces stiff competition from a stellar cast – see these actors now so you can say you saw them first.

You’ve Gone Quiet, written by Cerys Duffy and presented by Open Handed Theatre, at the Jack Studio Theatre.

Creatives:

Written by Cerys Duffy (she/her)

Directed by Andy McLeod (he/him)

Technical Director: Katy Matthews (she/her)

Intimacy Director: Natalie Grover (she/her)

Cast

Tara: Gennifer Becouarn (she/her)

Rory: Matt Vickery (he/him)

Gaz: Oliver Redpath (he/him)

Samantha: Sophia Vi (she/her)

Ian: Matt Roberts (he/him)

Beth: Shane Convery (they/them)

Instagram: @openhandedtheatre