Written by Philip for Theatre & Tonic

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review

Grief touches us all; what defines us is how we learn to live alongside it. In Evening All Afternoon, Anna Ziegler turns a searching gaze on unresolved loss and the quiet, corrosive ways it can shape a life. Now simmering at the Donmar Warehouse, this intimate, emotionally intelligent drama unfolds with a steady, penetrating power. Though dramatic is also incredibly witty. Ziegler treads the balance between light and shade expertly.

At its heart, the play is a two-hander: a portrait of two women—very different women—thrown together by circumstance. Through John, a man we never meet yet whose presence looms large, Jennifer and Delilah become stepmother and stepdaughter. It is a relationship neither anticipated nor desired, yet one they are compelled to navigate.

Jennifer is quiet, unassuming and deeply introverted—an Englishwoman who has spent much of her life in solitude, first alongside her mother and then truly alone. Her world shifts dramatically after her mother’s death, when she meets John, who arrives at a moment of profound vulnerability. Delilah, by contrast, is brash, articulate and fiercely extroverted—an American young woman whose own life has been indelibly marked by the loss of her mother at a formative age.

They clash almost immediately. Jennifer makes tentative, well-meaning overtures; Delilah rebuffs them with biting resistance. As the play unfolds, we witness Delilah’s mental health deteriorate, her grief curdling into instability and culminating in a psychotic break. Jennifer, though repeatedly pushed away, persists in her attempts to offer care and constancy. Both women are unmoored—grieving, isolated, and teetering on the brink. Ziegler resists easy resolutions, instead allowing us to sit with the discomfort of two people who cannot quite reach one another, yet are bound by shared loss.

This demanding two-hander is met with extraordinary performances. Anastasia Hille’s Jennifer is all restraint: shy, courteous and aching with suppressed longing. She strains to assert herself, to claim agency, yet seems perpetually on the verge of retreat. Hille captures the quiet devastation of a woman who has learned to endure rather than to demand.

Erin Kellyman, meanwhile, is electrifying as Delilah. Her performance crackles with volatility—a firecracker perpetually on edge. She exudes bravado and razor-sharp wit, yet beneath the surface lies a well of sadness and fragility that Kellyman reveals with heartbreaking precision. She is magnetic, her unraveling both unsettling and deeply moving. Together, Hille and Kellyman form a compelling partnership; their sparring is sharp and credible, and the audience’s sympathies are deftly pulled in both directions.

Diyan Zora’s direction gives the actors space to breathe and to blaze. The production flows with assurance, its pacing carefully modulated despite a structure that leans heavily on monologues punctuated by charged duologues. Basia Bińkowska’s deep-blue set creates an atmosphere of calm introspection, subtly reinforcing the play’s emotional currents. The use of a revolve adds fluidity, mirroring the cyclical nature of memory and grief.

Evening All Afternoon is a thoughtful, affecting piece of theatre. It may not be incendiary, but its quiet intensity lingers. In examining unresolved grief—particularly the loss of a mother—it strikes a deeply poignant chord. Anchored by two exceptional performances, this is a production that deserves attention.

Evening All Afternoon runs at Donmar Warehouse until Saturday 11th April

★★★★

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