The Uninvited Guest at Theatre Space North East Review
Written by Stacy for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Content includes: Depictions of pain and strained family relationships.
Last night, I found myself sitting in the cosy environment that is North East Theatre Space, waiting to meet The Uninvited Guest...and what an encounter it turned out to be. From the moment the action started, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be another tidy piece of issue-based theatre. Instead, this new collaborative venture between Theatre Space North East, Teesside University, and Flippin’ Pain offered something both playful and profound...a dialogue between science and storytelling that felt as alive as it was necessary.
The narrative premise is deceptively simple, with a wedding breakfast about to begin, and the quiet (or not so quiet) presence of chronic pain, represented in the flesh, appears. But what unfolds is a sharp, compassionate, and often very funny exploration of what it means to live with something unseen yet unrelenting.
The ensemble cast includes Nigel Fyfe, Grant Lawson and Erin Atack, who each deliver performances that balance clarity with warmth. Atack brings a sincerity to the role of Tracy, navigating humour and frustration with ease and pulling the audience into the difficulties of life with pain. Lawson's ability to shift between sharp wit and empathy anchors the piece as the role of Duncan is the linchpin between a past and present reality. Then Fyfe's emotional arc as Barry offers a tangible sense of the invisible weight so many carry when the 'Uninvited Guest' shows up in their life. The energy of the piece is buoyant without ever trivialising the subject....a fine balance that writer Jamie Brown creates to great effect.
What impressed me most though was how the piece manages to make complex neuroscience not just digestible, but theatrical. Rather than a lecture disguised as a play, it feels like a conversation...one we’re all invited into. The blend of fact and feeling, of data and drama, never feels forced. Visual metaphors bloom organically on screens and moments of song and movement sneak up on you, reminding us that pain, like theatre, lives in the body.
Director Corinne Kilvington steers the piece with a light but purposeful touch, ensuring that the scientific insights never overshadow the human ones. There’s a generosity in the storytelling ...a sense that everyone involved wants to make something genuinely useful, not just entertaining.
Leaving the theatre, I felt informed, moved, and oddly hopeful. The Uninvited Guest doesn’t claim to have the answers, but it invites the right questions around empathy, understanding, and how we talk about pain in a world that too often looks away. This is a dialogue worth continuing, and this show, in all its inventive honesty, is a wonderful place to start.
If you get the chance, take a seat at this wedding table. You might just find yourself talking to someone you didn’t know you needed to meet.
Touring venues across the North East until 19th October.
★★★★★
