Theatre Reviews: Second Best; Oedipus

Harry Potter, trauma, and yet more Sophocles

Feb 16, 2025

This week is all about a guy from a big streaming show making his London stage debut. There are two ways this can work: either a show is looking for an actor and casts a name, or a name is looking for a show and one is built around them. I have no inside information as to how these plays came about, but I have my suspicions.

Second Best - Riverside Studios, Studio 2

written by Barney Norris

based on David Foenkinos’ best-selling novel

directed by Michael Longhurst

1 hour 30 minutes

It was Monday evening and my weather app was threatening a “wintry mix” as I started my trek from Woolwich all the way across to Hammersmith. Somehow, the friend joining me that evening was having a worse journey, but we both made it on time for Second Best’s late start time of 8pm in the unusual confines of Riverside Studios.

In the studio next door was a recording of The Apprentice: You're Fired!, but inside Studio 2 sat an artificial theatre made from large black curtains and thinly cushioned seats. The stage was a stark white cuboid littered with a few curious props, and the general atmosphere was more clinical than theatrical. As each audience member turned to take their seat and saw the full stage for the first time, they would gasp, do a comical double take, or nudge their companion, as they realised that Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield was already sat on stage.

For his first play Butterfield has chosen an interval-free monologue that requires him to be on stage at all times, operate camera tech, and pull off some sleight of hand. It’s not an easy theatre debut, but he nails it. His character is Martin; an otherwise unremarkable man who came second in auditions for the Harry Potter films as the boy wizard himself. Butterfield directly addresses the audience over the course of 90 minutes – occasionally evoking secondary characters brilliantly – and exposes the way both Potter and some more traditional trauma have haunted Martin since childhood.

The stage is very sleek and minimalist; some areas are artfully cluttered, but as a whole, it resembles a gallery of the Tate Modern rather than an authentic or immersive space. It is in this void that Butterfield must make his stage debut and conjure up some soul and humanity. Armed only with his own gentle charisma, Butterfield slowly but surely fills that stage, bringing tenderness and a touch of magic into the big white box.

Occasionally at risk of being too slick and too polished, Second Best’s script and its star fight against their environment to deliver humanity and pathos. I left suitably warmed and ready to face the wintry weather outside. Would recommend.

Seat: Stalls, E24 - £35
This is not an old Victorian theatre, and all seats are on one level, face the stage, and are generously raked after the first four rows. You’d struggle to find a bad seat unless right at the end of the front row. I was technically too far to one side but could see everything onstage, excluding one non-essential potato, and was unusually close to the action. Roughly 2m further to the centre, and I would have had to pay an extra £100. No regrets.
All seats are VERY thinly cushioned, and I was glad the show was short for the sake of my backside.
Show: ★★★★☆
Seat: ★★★★☆

Second Best runs until 1st March.

Oedipus - The Old Vic

Sophocles

Ella Hickson - Adaptation

Hofesh Shechter - Co-Director, Choreographer & Music

Matthew Warchus - Co-Director

1 hour 40 minutes

In 1999, The Sixth Sense and Bruce Willis brought us one of cinema’s most iconic plot twists. Roughly 2,400 years prior to this, Sophocles brought ancient Greece one of theatre’s most enduring plot twists in Oedipus Rex. All these years later, and we just can’t get enough of him; the past year has seen almost as much Sophocles as Shakespeare in London, and I think/hope this might be the last of it.

Rami Malek plays Oedipus as a mix between Thom Yorke and Paul Atreides. He arrives on stage gently grooving amongst a sea of dancers and spends most of the play addressing the audience as the people of Thebes, who are suffering from an extreme drought. Opposite his signature weirdness is Indira Varma as a delightfully naturalistic – but completely mismatched – Jocasta.

The play is kept lean, with every scene simply delivering the plot, not serving the characters. In fact, the running time only stretches as far as it does thanks to each scene being punctuated by increasingly lengthy and jarring dance breaks. The dancing itself was not bad but sat uncomfortably alongside the relatively static dramatic scenes.

The trouble with a show that climaxes with a big twist that almost everyone knows is that you can’t have your whole play hinge on that moment of reveal itself. Instead, the thrill comes from the inevitability of that ending and the obliviousness of the characters. The shock itself isn’t going to shock, so we have to enjoy the set-up instead.

Last year, Robert Icke brought the West End an Oedipus that was dripping in dramatic irony. An on-stage clock counted down to the climax, and every moment that preceded it included a knowing wink to the audience. Even then, the big reveal still felt like a big reveal as the characters reacted with appropriate shock and disgust. At The Old Vic, that sense of fun and inevitability isn’t there. The machinations of the plot are muffled behind stylistic details that aren’t necessarily bad but miss the point of the play.

In amongst the confusion, a three-star play emerges. The cast around Malek are having a lot of fun with their roles and know which lines to ham up to get the audience on side; Cecilia Noble as Tiresias is a particular treat. Technically, everything is good – lighting and staging included – but there was a lot more fun they could have had with the most dramatic ending theatre has to offer.

I don’t think Oedipus is worth the effort it would take to find a ticket.

Seat: Baylis Circle, D25 - £35
This is the upper circle at The Old Vic and, for me, the only palatable way to see a show here. The view is unobstructed, if a little distant, but you’d struggle to do better without paying a ludicrous amount. Legroom is fine, but you will resent anyone arriving late and trying to shuffle past you.
Show: ★★★☆☆
Seat: ★★★★☆

Oedipus runs until 29th March 2025.