Echo – King’s Head Theatre, Islington

Writer: Susan Eve Haar
Director: Abigail Zealey-Bess

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

“Excruciatingly Long Monologues“

2 / 5

~This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub ~

The premise of Susan Eve Haar’s psychological thriller is fantastically intriguing. Split into two connecting narratives, it sparks discussion on the ethics of reproductive technology and the impacts it can have, but the execution is disappointingly underwhelming, causing frustration rather than fascination.

She (Amara Okereke) and He (Kyle Rowe) decide to spend their tenth anniversary in an Airbnb in upstate New York, though the depressing décor only seems to heighten the tension between the couple. She has struggled to conceive, heartbroken at not being able to start a family with him and on the brink of giving up on her life entirely. But He has found a solution – a ground-breaking new procedure that takes her DNA and creates a newborn clone, and the delivery of said baby is on its way, ready to change their lives forever.

It takes the majority of the first half of the show to reach the reveal of creating a clone, with most of the time prior introducing the bizarre relationship dynamic between the two characters. One minute they’re tender and enraptured by each other, the next she’s begging him to kill her and fetishising her death. They launch into flowery, meandering monologues, leaping around the room with overworked choreographed movements as they interact. The pair never feels believable, which makes it a struggle to relate to or engage with the characters and their predicaments.

That being said, when they do finally broach the subject of using a clone, a renewed energy is injected into the storyline, immediately sparking intrigue and reinvesting audience interest. The concept is fascinating, and the potential perils that come with it are endless, but instead of slowing down and fully exploring it, there is an abrupt finish, with a small resetting of Peiyao Wang’s cozy set design, alongside creative video projections from Matt Powell, before a semi-new He and She are introduced into the same hotel room for the second half of the show.

She is there to scatter her mother’s ashes, while He is her husband, providing moral support. Much like their predecessors, they skirt around interesting conversations, skimming the surface and never actually eliciting any real depth from the storyline. The main ‘revelation’ is met with a bizarrely muted reaction from She, without unpicking any of the creepy weirdness that lurks within their connection. After more excruciatingly long monologues that spell everything out to the audience unnecessarily, it ends very quietly, a bland culmination to what should be a really exciting, ground-breaking production.

Runs until 17 August 2025