Uncle Monty's Antique Shop

★★

An antique shop filled with mysterious objects, each concealing a story of its own, provides an intriguing premise for a piece of psychological theatre. And for a while, Uncle Monty's Antique Shop looks as though it might deliver something genuinely atmospheric and unsettling.

Unfortunately, what begins promisingly soon descends into a confusing succession of disjointed scenes that struggle to form a satisfying whole.

Written and directed by Nina Atesh and Alexander Wright, the production presents four supposedly interconnected stories exploring themes of violence, control, memory and power. At least, that appears to be the intention. In practice, the connections are so tenuous that the evening feels less like a carefully constructed anthology and more like a series of unrelated sketches. One moment we are inside Uncle Monty's antique shop, the next apparently in the company of a government minister and his aide, before moving to a room occupied by soldiers, what appears to be a hotel or private residence, and eventually a hospital or medical research facility. Yet there is remarkably little in the staging to distinguish these locations or establish where we are supposed to be. Minimalist theatre can transport an audience between entirely different worlds without elaborate scenery, but here the transitions are so poorly defined that the constant changes become bewildering rather than intriguing.

The writing is the production's greatest weakness. Dialogue frequently meanders without purpose, scenes unfold with little sense of direction, and the narrative lacks the underlying thread needed to hold the various episodes together. Rather than building tension or intrigue, the constant shifts gradually become frustrating. The performances are similarly uneven. Nicholas Benjamin plays Uncle Monty with an exaggerated theatricality that too often tips into overacting, undermining rather than enhancing the character's unsettling qualities. Akshay Sharan, appearing in several roles including a doctor, soldier and government aide, struggles to establish sufficiently distinct characters, with inconsistent accents that frequently seem to wander within the same character. By contrast, Shanice Petilaire delivers a much more assured and convincing performance, providing some welcome consistency amid the uneven characterisation.

There are occasional moments when the production's darker ambitions begin to emerge, suggesting that the original concept has genuine potential. But these are too fleeting to overcome the problems with the script, staging and overall coherence.

Uncle Monty's Antique Shop has an interesting idea at its heart, but the execution leaves much to be desired. What should have been an intriguing journey through the secrets of forgotten objects becomes an increasingly muddled and unsatisfying evening.

Uncle Monty's Antique Shop played at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre, 42-44 Gaisford Street, Kentish Town, London NW5 2ED, from 13-17 October 2026.