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An Intervention

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 3 Published: 26 Jun 2026 The Space Show Dates: 23 Jun 2026-27 Jun 2026

As wars, conflicts and genocides continue to ravage the world, Mike Bartlett’s 2014 An Intervention remains highly topical. Currently revived by Mop N Bucket Theatre at The Space on the Isle of Dogs, international affairs are the catalyst for a radical reappraisal of a fragile relationship.

Banter between them ranges from the vitriolic and venomous to the light-hearted and comical

Bartlett identifies the characters only as A and B, highlighting their representational nature as friends involved in a dispute and their positions in the debate about the rights and wrongs of invading a country.

A (Neila Stephens) goes on a protest march against the invasion, expecting that her friend, B (Tom Zachar), will be there. Instead, she later discovers, back at her flat, that he actually supports it and had stayed at home to watch it on television. The ensuing banter between them ranges from the vitriolic and venomous to the light-hearted and comical. In need of more ammunition to hurl at each other, A cannot resist bringing up the matter of B’s new girlfriend, the allegedly dreadful Hannah who, according to A, is loathed by all of B’s friends and his mother. Meanwhile, B, with ample justification, does not flinch from pointing out that A is showing all the signs of alcoholism. The fragility of their relationship becomes increasingly exposed as A slides towards depression, while B reconsiders whether he can remain a supportive friend and faces the prospect that he may have overstepped the mark by trying to dictate her behaviour. His life is thrown into further disarray by developments in his romance with Hannah.

The venue offers many possibilities for staging, but much of the intensity of the play is lost through director Dom Stephens opting for a promenade production. Despite its appropriateness for the final dramatic scene, there is too much space to support the claustrophobic interactions that dominate the play. With large fans cooling the venue, the soft tones of both Stephens and Zachar meant that words were sometimes lost, although that was also an issue of enunciation and projection. There were, however, moments of intense rage and passion that contrasted with periods of sensitivity and mutual understanding.

An Intervention is always an interesting work to see, but each revival seems to pose the challenge of lifting it off the page and turning it into a wholly convincing piece of drama.

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The Blurb:

All conflict is personal. The war has taken many casualties. Will this friendship be the latest? One of them has just been on the mass protest. The other watched a bit of it on TV. Tom Zachar and Neila Stephens star in this touching comedy about what happens when you hate your best friend. “Yeah it’s fun this conversation isn’t it, because we could be talking about the war or about my relationship with the mother of my child” Mike Bartlett’s celebrated two-hander comedy about serious things