Welcome to Pemfort review – shattering study of living history and the past you can’t shake off

2026-03-18 - 23:10

Soho theatre, London In Sarah Power’s impressive play, a new arrival makes a disturbing revelation to a team of oddballs working at a sleepy castle Everyone is trying their best at the Pemfort Castle gift shop, where hundreds of years of history are smoothed down to plastic goblets and dragon slippers. Around designer Alys Whitehead’s carefully curated set of wooden swords and jars of jam, Sarah Power’s shattering new play uses a living history event to grapple with the stories we tell about – and to – ourselves, and question what happens when the past cannot be shaken off. “Medical leeching demonstration” is pinned optimistically to the ideas board for the sleepy castle’s forthcoming event, which accuracy-oriented Glenn (a serious, wonderfully pernickety Ali Hadji-Heshmati) desperately wants to be a success. He is outraged at the suggestion by scatty Uma (Debra Gillett, oozing warmth) that they lump together the dark stories of the castle’s past, out of time and context, while Ria (a buoyant Lydia Larson) is happy to go along with it, her mind half on the local deer she is in the process of befriending. At Soho theatre, London, until 18 April. Continue reading...