The Olive Boy at Southwark Playhouse (Borough) Review

Ollie Maddigan in The Olive Boy. Photo: John Blitcliffe

Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic

Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review

Award-winning play The Olive Boy opens at Southwark Playhouse for its first dedicated London run. Originally developed at the Camden Fringe in 2021, it enjoyed a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022 and a successful UK tour in 2024.

Written and performed by Ollie Maddigan, it’s based on his true story. When Maddigan was 14, his mother died. The play explores the ways in which he dealt with his grief whilst going through adolescence. It shows him dealing with the loss of a mother and moving miles away from home to live with a father he hardly knew, all alongside raging teenage hormones.

The title comes from Ollie’s mother. When he was born, he appeared to be green! So Mum called him her little olive boy, because he was so sweet and pure. As Maddigan points out, this is nonsense as olives are actually bitter and frankly disgusting – but also a recurring presence throughout the play. I doubt I’ll look at a bowl of them the same way again.

There’s no set to speak of, just a green chair set centre-stage. Scenes are created with slick lighting changes (designed by Adam Jefferys), using strobes and blinders to take us from the classroom, to the high energy of a house party, to a therapist’s office. It’s very effective and it’s all we need as to tell this story, we have Ollie Maddigan.

Maddigan gives an exceptional performance. Of course he is so familiar with this very personal story that its retelling feels natural, engaging and entirely credible. As soon as he slouches onto the stage, perfectly embodying his teenage self, he grabs the audience’s attention, confidently breaking the fourth wall to draw us into the action. Working with director Scott Le Crass, he makes great use of the space and over the course of the play’s 75 minute running time, does not drop focus, energy or character for a moment.

He plays all of the characters – each clearly presented as a distinct personality either in his portrayal of his Dad or object of his affections, “Science Girl”, or by his own reactions to schoolmates like cool kid Jake or the nerdy girl he finds repulsive.

The bulk of the play could be a typical coming of age story – trying to fit in at school, trying to impress a girl and bragging about a fabricated night out so OTT that even Jay from The Inbetweeners might think it’s a step too far! It’s very funny and very relatable. The only real indication that Olive Boy is struggling is when the action cuts to a therapist’s office. A rather robotic, muffled and disembodied voice (provided in a voiceover by Ronni Ancona) is trying to get him to open up about the loss of his mother. Although initially a little frustrating, this lack of clarity in the dialogue soon becomes very effective in showing us the barriers our protagonist has built up to avoid facing up to and dealing with his feelings.

It's a very funny and recognisable portrayal of a 15 year old boy – full of bravado, coarse humour and cringeworthy experiences – until it isn’t. A meeting with Mum’s partner, “Peter the Pushover” suddenly makes her loss feel very real and Maddigan’s script and delivery from here to the end of the play becomes raw and emotional. The final scene is heartbreaking but it’s also hopeful.

The play is framed by some video projected onto the back of the stage area. At the start, we see Ollie as a young boy on a day out with Mum. All very nice. Repeating this clip, with some other happy family footage, at the end of the play really hits home.

Maddigan talks to the audience at the end of the performance, telling us that we should never shy away from talking about our grief, it’s the one thing that everybody will experience at some point so the one thing that can definitely unite us. It’s incredibly powerful. We’re only a couple of weeks into January, and this is a performance that will be hard to beat this year. The Olive Boy manages to be both laugh-out-loud funny and absolutely devastating. It’s something that anybody who has ever experienced love should go and see.

The Olive Boy runs at Southwark Playhouse (Borough) until 31st January. Find out more and book tickets here.

★★★★★