Review: A Million Miles Under Hampstead Heath, Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Lion and Unicorn Theatre has a very clear blueprint for much of the work that makes it to this black box space. Real-life characters finding themselves in very real-life scenarios, more often than not, with very little sugar coating. If you are looking for feel-good and happy ever after, it might be best to avoid this place. However, if you want to be moved, to experience life, warts and all, at times there really is nowhere that does it better.

Which is probably a long-winded way to say that A Million Miles Under Hampstead Heath is absolutely the type of show you’d expect to see grace the stage of this lovely fringe venue. It delivers a beautifully poignant study of a flawed relationship and how unchecked grief can cause so much lasting damage. That relationship is between James and Maya, who we witness take those first gentle steps into a new, exciting relationship. A nervous James takes ages to bring himself to actually talk to the girl he sees every day on their commute home on the Northern line, but after this hesitant start, we follow them through first dates, moving in together, and the efforts both go to to make it work. Yet deep down, we all know it’s doomed from the very start. I have already warned you that you don’t always get happy-ever-after here.

Nina Fuentes’ writing is wonderful. She cleverly introduces the death of Maya’s mother early on, and then whilst never referring to it directly again, leaves the loss hanging over everything that follows. It’s this failure for Maya to ever truly deal with her grief that looms large even as it goes unmentioned, poisoning everything that follows.

The dual narrative used allows both James and Maya to address the audience directly, telling us their true thoughts even as they say something very different to each other. It’s well thought out and under Robert Monaghan’s directing, flows incredibly smoothly as they switch from talking to the audience and one another. It allows us to better understand them both, perhaps better than they ever really get to know each other. The closing reveal, cleverly allowing us to reassess our perceptions of the whole play, suddenly seems so obvious and allows for a perfect way to bring the story full circle. It may be heartbreaking, but it is also the honesty that needs to be said.

Anna Hewitt’s Maya is beautifully handled as she seems to refuse to ever truly address her feelings. Instead, she is constantly defensive and tries too hard to be what she feels James wants from her. Opposite her, George Prentice as James wears his heart much more openly, saying what clearly needs to be said, but doing so in ways that just cause more pain and conflict between the pair. Together they are both a wonderful fit, yet at the same time, painful to watch as they hurtle towards more heartache.

A Million Miles Under Hampstead Heath is a beautiful play. It’s honest, it’s totally believable and it refuses to give us the happy ending that would make things so much easier. Instead, we are left with a sadness and aching for what might have been for two wonderfully crafted characters in a play that totally belongs at Lion and Unicorn Theatre.

Written by: Nina Fuentes
Directed by: Robert Monaghan
Dramaturg & Co-Produced by: Luis Hopkins
Technician: Leo Tsokolaeva
Produced by: Nothing Theatre

A Million Miles Under Hampstead Heath plays at Lion and Unicorn Theatre until Saturday 26 April.