Stanislavsky Can’t Save Me From the Apocalypse at Barons Court Theatre 5 – 9 May 2026
‘This female-led creative team definitely have stories to tell, but …’ ★★⯪☆☆
With an all-female creative team and a delightfully gripping title, Stanislavsky Can’t Save Me From the Apocalypse is a coming of age comedy, set in a theatre summer camp in Maine, where five young women find themselves in charge of a group of kids after a mysterious apocalypse.
The story revolves around the five main characters – we never see or hear the children in the camp – as they navigate friendship, romance, and have to confront their new disastrous reality. Once aspiring actors, musicians or even theatre technicians, they are now stranded far away from their hopes and dreams of a future in New York or LA.
The play is full of theatre and film references used for comedy purposes which at times end up slightly overpowering the character dynamics. In the intricate space of the Baron’s Court Theatre, the set design is only constituted of musical theatre production flyers, scattered on the walls, which struggle to reflect the disruptive spirit expected from an apocalypse. While it’s understandable for a pub theatre production to have a limited budget, the few moments where actors mime onstage – such simple actions as pouring a glass of prosecco – doesn’t work and is unsettling for the audience. Perhaps the show could have used a stronger sound design or music presence, especially as the audience is teased with talks around musical theatre and expects some instrumental or singing interludes. Such an occasion only occurs once, when Molly Wolff’s character Erika picks up a guitar, bringing together the group in a beautifully heart-warming moment.
Overall, the plot struggles to move forward: the first scene reveals Dani’s death (Christie Griffin) as the group tries to figure out who is responsible for the murder. But the scenes that follow fail to maintain such high stakes within the fractured timeline of the play. The animosity between Dani and Erika (who we know has ‘accidentally’ killed Dani) quickly becomes repetitive. Undeniably, the energy from the actors onstage is remarkable, but the constant screaming and shouting eventually undermines the performances, making some dialogues quite hard to follow.
This female-led creative team definitely have stories to tell, and ones we need to hear, but while the concept of their play is intriguing, the current shape of this production is missing the structure of a compelling story.
Stanislavsky Can’t Save Me From the Apocalypse at Barons Court Theatre 5 – 9 May 2026
Written & directed by Maggie Dickinson
Produced by Cate Johannessen
Living Room Productions
Photography: Izzy Reeve
