THE UGLY ONE at The White Bear Theatre 15 – 27 June 2026
‘a good play does not need to dress up if what lies underneath works’ ★★★★
“Why would you want to change a face like that?” a cast of characters exclaim at multiple points to a man who has become drop-dead gorgeous after facial surgery. Yet Lette, an accomplished electrical engineer, struggles to explain the weight that his new skin has left upon the person underneath. Produced by the conveniently named Broken Nose Theatre Company at The White Bear Theatre, Marius von Mayenburg’s The Ugly One provides no advertisement for extreme beauty standards.
It begins when Lette discovers that his work colleagues have been hiding something from him. Arriving home, it falls to his wife to tell him that he’s not just ugly but unspeakably so, and he decides to snap his face into shape. After Lette’s successful surgery, he emerges now as a veritable Narcissus with men, women and very old female oil tycoons, falling at his feet. Running for just over an hour, The Ugly One is a cautionary and symbolic tale about the hazards of beauty, plastic surgery and rapid metamorphosis. It’s another great rendition of a play that has a proven track record.
The script has many of the qualities of a well-made Greek tragedy. The traditional style is formed through Lette’s rise from nobody to celebrity—with all the typical excesses of hubris and pride—only for him to fall out with his manufacturing company, his wife and all his other lovers as a matter of course. All slips away whilst the plastic surgeon, who built his winning face, then sells its design to the public for a quick buck. Though parading around as satire and farce in early sequences, the work reveals itself as a darker social commentary when Lette nearly jumps from a high building, only to be saved by another man wearing his own face. The phrase, “I love me”, echoes ironically around when the penultimate lines shared by both doppelgangers are spoken.
Like Lette, the play has tried on the appearances of many theatres across London and it’s not even this director’s first rodeo. Ramin Gray staged the play’s 2007 English-language premiere downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, as well as a Russian production in Moscow. Though much less grand than its previous staging, this production serves as a reminder that a good play does not need to dress up if what lies underneath works.
The international cast for this run is what makes this production unique. Irishman John Rice from Kilkenny, Russian-American actor Michael Tcherepashnets, with Anastasia Velique and German Segal from Russia have neither their identities, nor their accents stripped away.
Apart from blackouts, there was little in the way of lighting or tech. No need for such elaborate facades with a script so rich in language, so questioning of its central premise and so wonderfully obscure. My only criticism comes for the production company making such a safe bet with a work so destined to please. But then, ‘why change a play like this for something new.’
THE UGLY ONE by by Marius Von Mayenburg
White Bear Theatre, Kennington
15th–27th June 2026
Creative Team
Director — Ramin Gray
Associate Director — Joshua Herberg
Cast
John Rice
German Segal
Michael Tcherepashenets
Anastasia Velique
Photographer: Alina Saffron
