Theatre Review: The Estate

An unmissable performance in a near perfect play

Jul 20, 2025

Sadly my rebooked visit to see Storehouse in Deptford was cancelled last minute due to the extreme heat. When a show cancels on you twice it’s time to take the hint and ask for a refund. For anyone still curious there are £10 tickets available on ShowFilmFirst. The discount is almost tempting but I have to maintain my self-respect.

The one play I did see last week was brilliant and is one I would heartily recommend.

Who needs immersive theatre in Deptford?

The Estate - National Theatre, Dorfman

a new play by Shaan Sahota

directed by Daniel Raggett

2 hours 20 minutes

The National Theatre’s Dorfman stage, its most intimate and adaptable space, has been closed for renovations for almost a year. Easily my favourite of the three theatres within the National’s beautiful concrete maze, the Dorfman is back. Being a smaller room, the Dorfman is normally reserved for the more experimental, challenging, risky, or otherwise less commercial output from the National. Case in point: The Estate.

The Estate is the debut play from Shaan Sahota, playwright and doctor, and tackles family, religion, politics, race, and class. Featuring an unmissable central performance from Adeel Akhtar, The Estate is a powerful debut for Sahota, and a career-making moment for Akhtar. The play is shocking, gripping, hilarious, but stretches at the seams trying to juggle competing focuses.

Allow me to demonstrate.

Adeel Akhtar stars as Angad, a moderately successful MP with ambitions to shake up politics. Coming from a working class background he finds himself butting heads with the party whip (Humphrey Ker) and suffering from enthusiastic but lacklustre support from his aides (Fode Simbo and Helena Wilson). When the leader of the opposition resigns, Angad becomes the unlikely favourite to take over, but to do so he must survive his own scandals, wrestle with trauma from his boarding school days, and fight the racial and class prejudice baked into the party he hopes to lead.

And/Or

Adeel Akhtar stars as Angad, husband, brother, son, and soon-to-be-father. With a strong wife (Dinita Gohil), two older sisters (Thusitha Jayasundera and Shelley Conn), and the spectre of an overbearing father, Angad comes across as the lowest status member of his family. When his father dies suddenly, and leaves everything to Angad, forcing him to choose between honouring his sisters by splitting the money or following his father’s patriarchal wishes. The situation forces him to confront abuse from his childhood, his relationship with his family, and what he truly believes in when his own money is on the line.

Two plotlines run through the play, both rich enough to sustain their own plays. They weave together neatly enough, and come together at the show’s explosive climax, but the show’s only weakness comes from the sheer volume it contains.

Helping to manage the two sides of the plot is a beautifully adaptive set designed by Chloe Lamford. Initially a claustrophobic MP’s office, the set expands to a palatial constituency home, and deftly doubles as a gurdwara and the stage of a political convention. Transitions between scenes are incredibly satisfying, and Lamford uses subtle design tricks to suggest larger spaces than the Dorfman can contain.

The cast are also superb. My favourite from the political half of the play is Humphrey Ker who looms over proceedings at a height of over 2 meters. Barging into rooms, huffing on a vape pen, and trying to affably curtail Angad’s ambitions, Ker is the perfect embodiment of the political establishment. Opposing Ker’s polished, hard edges in the familial half of the play is Thusitha Jayasundera as Angad’s oldest sister. With endless warmth, her hair is always tousled, her bags always overflowing, and she delivers dialogue between mouthfuls of cold leftovers stolen from the fridge. Jayasundera is a naturalistic performer and grounds the wilder plot developments with her understated stage presence.

Holding these two worlds together is Adeel Akhtar. Physically unassuming, he almost cowers in the presence of both his colleagues and his family, Akhtar plays Angad as a tightly coiled bundle of suppressed rage and resentment. For the most part a lower status character in almost all situations, the pressure inside Angad occasionally boils over. In those moments Akhtar reveals whole new depths to his performance and produces an onstage presence that’s nothing short of terrifying. In The Estate, Adeel Akhtar is delivering one of London’s best performances of 2025 so far.

This is not a perfect play, but with the wealth of riches it contains it is spoiling the audience. What it is, though, is deep, thought-provoking, and shocking. The sort of play that leaves you shaken and with a lot to unpack on the walk to Waterloo. As one woman said to us on the way out, “Oh it was good wasn’t it?”

Seat: Pit, M26 - £35
Seated snugly on high stools right at the back of the Pit we were pretty central, facing the stage directly and had a good view over the heads in front. The only downside being the intimacy we experienced when anyone needed to slide past to get to their seats. The Estate uses the Dorfman in a very traditional stage set-up, so seats closer to the stage but off to the side might miss some of the action.
Show: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Seat: ★★★★★ (5/5)

The Estate runs until 23rd August.