King’s Head Theatre, til 23 March 2025 

⭐⭐

Good music doesn’t save this overstuffed show from being just plain exhausting.

A few weeks ago I extolled the virtues of local non-profit outfit Park Theatre when I went to see The Gift; this week I was at another fantastic charity theatre called the King’s Head in Islington. Originally part of the pub when it opened in 1970, the King’s Head Theatre has grown so much it now boasts its own headquarters in Upper Street. With a focus on queer and new theatre, it’s got several unique spaces in which to present work by or featuring emerging talent. In fact, I discovered on arriving last Friday night that the space in which I saw a wonderfully weird fringe comedy show last year (Officer Scott: Too Much is not Enough) is actually just the corridor leading to a much larger, fully fledged theatre. I offer all this detail on the King’s Head Theatre because I’m about to tear to shreds the show I saw there, but I don’t want that to turn any readers off exploring smaller theatre venues. The performance I went to on Friday was half-empty, which is a real shame; even though I wasn’t a fan of the show, I think theatres that dare to take a punt on new or alternative works ought to be supported.

Stalled is very new, with this run (directed by Vikki Stone) being its world premiere. It’s a one-room affair, all taking place in an upmarket women’s bathroom in a Seattle city building. Our main character is Maggie, finding herself a little lost in life as she’s abandoned her beauty salon for a go-nowhere cleaning job. Between chats with her school-age daughter Robin, she starts getting caught up in the lives of some of the restroom regulars. There’s the rage-filled teen poet Serena, facing a pregnancy scare after a fling with an inappropriately older man. Krystal is hopelessly in love with her coworker Sophie but terrified what her conservative Korean mother would think if she came out. Cynthia struggles with her own demons while trying her best to adapt to motherhood of the adorably quirky (and neurodivergent) Emma. 

Let’s start with the good. The music of Stalled is undeniably great (courtesy of composition and lyrics from Andy Marsh). Unfortunately the show is new enough and small enough that it doesn’t yet have a cast recording on Spotify for me to namecheck the songs, but there are plenty of standouts. The opening number (which I can pretty reliably guess is called Stalled) is catchy, some of Maggie’s solo numbers are beautifully melodious, and there are excellent harmonies throughout. It’s an all-female cast and the collective sound of the ensemble numbers is gorgeous. Everyone was giving a good performance on Friday – West End veteran Lauren Ward was excellent as Maggie, and the rest of the cast all played their parts with aplomb.

Unfortunately, beyond the musical appeal, Stalled has very little that’s enjoyable. The opening number features some great ensemble choreography (from movement director Dannielle Rhimes Lecointe), though in the small performance space of the King’s Head Theatre the cast seemed to struggle not to bump into each other. I think that’s a good metaphor for the problem with Stalled: it’s overstuffed. Not only are there four storylines competing for space within a short 90-minute runtime, but writer Liesl Wilke seems determined to tackle multiple Big Social Issues within each character’s arc. I started trying to list the various heavy themes covered, and before I ran out of steam I managed to get to: motherhood, absent mothers, disapproving mothers, becoming one’s own mother, grief, moving on from grief, alcohol addiction, prescription drug addiction, drug spiking, female rage, teen rage, teen pregnancy, self-harm, coming out, culture clash for children of immigrants, religious conservatism, neurodivergence, bullying, age-gap relationships, long-term relationships and the grind of the 9-5.

Between all this trauma, there isn’t any room for proper storytelling or character development. The characters exist only through their suffering – we learn a lot about their rage and sorrow but not very much else at all. The natural dramatic rhythm of building tension and then releasing it is abandoned, with every single song designed to be a moment of peak emotion. Stalled starts at 100% maximum angst, and stays there for an entire 90 minutes. It’s exhausting without ever really being emotionally affecting. The show seems to end on a hopeful note for most of the characters, but in a way that’s deeply confusing because it doesn’t feel like we’ve really watched any of them experience any growth – just suffering. 

There’s so much attempted commentary on the female experience crammed into Stalled that I was left wondering what the message of it all is. That being a woman . . . sucks? I think perhaps there’s meant to be some exploration of the notion that the sisterhood can help us through – certainly that would explain the logic of setting the entire thing in a bathroom, given it’s well-known among us girlies how fast a friend you can make within three shared minutes in the ladies’. But if that’s the big idea, why is Stalled so devoid of joy? Of course there is plenty of theatre out there that is both relentlessly dark and intensely good, but those shows have a sense of purpose and ordered storytelling that’s lost here. So while I’m still giving kudos to King’s Head for taking the swing, they missed the ball on this one. 

Visit the King’s Head Theatre website for tickets to Stalled.