In Defence of Adventurous Mothers

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Jack Gray as Theo and Lucy Wells as Nancy

There’s something fitting about heading downstairs into a dark, compact basement to watch a play about climbing mountains. The Glitch, tucked beneath a lively bar on Lower Marsh, feels like the sort of venue that only London does properly—slightly ramshackle, surprisingly atmospheric, and intimate enough that the audience feels part of the action.

It’s the kind of fringe venue I love: compact, unpolished, a bit makeshift in feel, but totally focused on the storytelling.

The room is small, with audience seating on three sides, and just enough height for the actors to really move. The space comes with quirks: a few thick columns occasionally block your eyeline, especially if you’re not in a central seat. But you get over that quickly. This is theatre up close, raw and right in front of you, and the performers—Lucy Wells as Nancy and Jack Grey as Theo—use every inch of it.

Jack Gray as Theo and Lucy Wells as Nancy

They’re already there when you walk in, chatting quietly with audience members, stretching, moving through the space with a calm confidence that makes you feel like you’ve arrived somewhere you're meant to be. And thank goodness for the air conditioning, which actually works (a rare gift in a London fringe venue in July).

The play is inspired by Alison Hargreaves, the renowned mountaineer who died on K2 in 1995, leaving behind two young children. She was the friend of Simon Marshall's (the playwright) mother. Rather than retell her life, the play explores her legacy—what it means to be a mother who chooses risk, and what it means to grow up in the wake of that choice. Nancy and Theo are a little older than Alison's children were when their mother gets caught in an avalanche and never return.

The actors deftly occupy all other characters between them; their father, the headteacher, other climbers etc. They slip effortlessly into each new persona and back again into Nancy and Theo.

The adult children take diverging paths. Theo although a talented climber, prioritises stability: love, home, safety with his husband. Nancy is restless, propelled by something unspoken, always looking to the next summit. Her latest challenge; the mountain her mother died on, climbing solo with no oxygen leaves her at odds with Theo. Neither is wrong, but both are shaped by the same loss—and by the same woman, whose presence lingers in everything.

Does Nancy make it? You'll have to see In Defence of Adventurous Mothers for yourself to find out.

Creatives:

Written by Simon Marshall

Directed by Oliver Savage

Starring Lucy Wells and Jack Gray

Lighting design by Dmitry Bashtanov

Produced by Eleanor Shaw

Information

📍 Address: The Glitch, 134 Lower Marsh, London, SE1 7AE

🔗 Website

🗓️ Performance Dates: Friday 11th July – Monday 4th August (closed Tuesdays)

🕖 Performance Times: 19:00 daily (except Tuesdays); matinées at 14:00 on Thursdays & Saturdays

🎟️ Tickets: £15 / £10