What’s the story?

George, Cameron and Nancy share a home, but rather than a harmonious and loving household theirs is one ruled tyrannically by Nancy, and his constitution – made up of firmly controlled statutes. Full-time employed and beard-growing George may not use the toilet without “adult supervision,” speaking Spanish is explicitly forbidden, fish must be eaten each and every Thursday, and no outsiders may be brought into the fold. Questions grow and a push towards independence threatens to derail this uneasy order in Malcolm Webb’s eery three-hander.

Where did it play?

Mackerel Thursday played at the Old Red Lion Theatre from April 9th to April 11th 2026

For more information and updates on future productions follow Agents of Chaos Theatre on Instagram.

This review was written at the request of Agents of Chaos Theatre, who kindly invited me to attend.

Spoiler-Free Thoughts

An immediate point of praise for Malcolm Webb’s Mackerel Thursday is its atmosphere. Between Webb’s script and director Alec Osbourne’s guidance, the hour-and-change is almost oppressive in its discomfort, immersive the audience even as it pointedly keeps them at arm’s length. As Nancy’s fury at his statutes being broken grows, so too does the underlying sense of dread.

Perhaps the first point of criticism is one that goes hand in hand with this praise – it’s never clear how this sense of dread came to sit over the household, or indeed how they came to live together. There are strong visual implications of a physical disability or poorly-healed injury making Cameron feel bound to Nancy’s care, and allusions to a past occurrence which would make Nancy feel more protective of George, but why George in particular doesn’t make an escape remains a mystery.

Webb’s performance as Nancy does distract from these questions for decent stretches, with his position as a stern father figure played with a sense of panic and urgency bordering on manic. Even though it is never entirely clear how things came to be the way they are by the start of the show, Webb’s performance makes it painfully clear that there is a reason, and that his ongoing behaviour has stemmed from a warped sense of devotion to those closest to him.

That theme of love turning dark and possessive sits alongside the aforementioned dread as an undercurrent from start to finish, a clear sense of dedication sitting just beneath the surface and informing the characters’ decisions in regards to one another. Osbourne’s direction ensures that the ever-mounting frustrations are always tinged with a feeling of affection, a genuine sense of love between the trio that ensures that the warped family dynamic doesn’t quite tip over into a total hostage situation.

The other actors are also strong, with Christopher Cox bringing a childlike quality to George that enhances the fatherly habits of Nancy, and Aiofe Moss finding a good balance between tenderness and the beginnings of rebellion. With all three backstories shrouded in that lingering mystery, Cox and Moss do a fine job of letting us see the personalities of their characters even as they live within Nancy’s tightening grip. Moss in particular comes alive in the final third, in which Cameron’s understanding if her situation and her sense of urgency around it become strikingly clear.

Malcolm Webb’s script does plenty to keep the characters and the audience firmly in the present, so tightly focused on what is happening at any given moment that questions about the past can be brushed aside. Still, particularly as the brutal conclusion settled in, I couldn’t quite stop asking why… asking how?! Cameron and George seem to view Nancy’s regime as business as usual, but with George in particular developing a life outside of the house, I found myself longing for more clues about what brought this shift about, and what complexities it may be creating in his job and interactions with colleagues.

Mackerel Thursday is undoubtedly fascinating, definitely compelling, but simply too confusing and too lacking in explaining some logistical issues for me to fully lose myself in. The characters themselves are strong, and the mysterious background isn’t unwelcome, but a stronger sense of why George in particular stays so under Nancy’s thumb could go a long way towards putting aside these niggling questions and fully investing in Webb’s creation.

Final Thoughts

Unsettling. Unanswered. Odd.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The talent on display is hard to deny, but Mackerel Thursday feels embedded deeply in a world just beyond reach. When the work soars, the background becomes irrelevant and deeper understanding would be only a bonus, but in other moments this lack of clarity begins to grate, and despite a commanding presence from Webb’s Nancy, it’s difficult to fully invest in a world whose logical seal is so easy to pick open.