Review: Two Halves Of Guinness, Park Theatre

Sir Alec Guinness was one of the great shapeshifters of British acting. A star across stage, film and television – and the recipient of an acting Oscar, a Tony and three BAFTAs – he could disappear so completely into a role that the man himself often seemed to vanish. Offstage he was famously private, guarded to the point of mystery. In 2010 playwright Mark Burgess attempted to peek behind that curtain with his one-man play Two Halves of Guinness, revived here with Zeb Soanes taking on the formidable task of embodying the great man.

The set is surprisingly sparse: a curtain at the rear, a stool, a tea-chest and an old trunk stuffed with costumes and props. Soanes enters in an immaculate dinner jacket to the jaunty strains of the ‘Colonel Bogey March’, immortalised in The Bridge On The River Kwai. Beginning with Guinness accepting an honorary Oscar, he quickly breaks the fourth wall, inviting the audience to call out titles from the actor’s formidable filmography. It’s a clever icebreaker before the show settles into its main task: tracing Guinness’s life from his childhood, born to an unmarried mother and never knowing his father, to his late-career triumph as George Smiley in the BBC’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Along the way, Soanes morphs through more than 30 characters. Some are towering theatrical contemporaries: John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Noël Coward and Edith Evans, while others are directors such as David Lean and Robert Hamer. There are then Guinness’s own acting roles: Hamlet, Colonel Nicholson and Obi-Wan Kenobi amongst many others. It’s a dazzling acting relay race and Soanes runs it with charm, wit and stamina.

Director Selina Cadell directs with a light touch whilst movement director Didi Hopkins ensures that Soanes glides almost balletically between personas and props. Subtle sound and lighting from Eliza Thompson and Michael Fox respectively add texture, helping maintain interest, which is not always easy to achieve in a solo show.

One small quibble: why does a play that is less than ninety minutes long need an interval? I thought maybe it was something to do with the show being called Two Halves Of Guinness and that the second act would be different. However, apart from Soanes changing out of his dinner suit into a more casual outfit, it was more of the same and slightly lacking the energy of the first act. 

As for Guinness the man, Burgess only partially lifts the veil. We hear about his childhood, his marriage to Merula, his son Matthew’s polio and his wartime service, but the actor’s inner life remains elusive. In truth, the play is less biography and more a celebration, a tribute to Guinness’s extraordinary gallery of roles and his meticulous craft. The opening-night crowd, packed with actors, clearly relished the theatrical anecdotes and his process. Two Halves Of Guinness is an excellent piece of theatre, well written, well staged and well performed. Did I learn a lot about Sir Alec Guinness? Probably not, but I did learn that Zeb Soanes, whom I’d only known as the voice of BBC Radio’s The Shipping Forecast, is a superb actor and that both halves of Two Halves Of Guinness are well worth seeing.

Directed by Selina Cadell
Written by Mark Burgess
Set & Costume Design by Lee Newby
Lighting Design by Michael Fox
Movement by Didi Hopkins
Sound Design by Eliza Thompson
Produced by Julian Bird

Two Halves Of Guinness is playing at the Park Theatre until Saturday 2 May 2026.