Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic Society 
The Exchange, Sturminster Newton
Chaz Davenport 
16 May 2026
The first thing that jumped out at me when asked to review this was the tag line – “A Fractured Mirror Still Reflects”. This had me thinking that this is theatre right up my street. And, I wasn’t wrong. This is experimental, leftfield, thought provoking and snappy theatre which explores the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) either when recognised and treated, or when untreated.
The story explores the inner goings on of the mind of “Thomas”, who, we find out, witnessed the love of his life being killed in a fire. The self-blame and survivor guilt which comes from such an event has come to torture him and the workings of his mind to such an extent that he resides (as we find out) in an institution. What we are presented with for the most part of this is Thomas’ reaction to the demon in his mind and the minions of that demon who constantly jostle and torture and terrify him.
Writer and Director Martyn Lilley wrote this play as an homage to a friend who didn’t make it out of the other side of PTSD. He has found a way to show us this torture and jostling through making the demon and minions, and returning manifestation of his late girlfriend, Elise, and how the severe mental anguish and guilt can feel only too real and only too physical to the sufferer.
As Thomas, Joel Warner excels and manages to envelop his performance with the screaming torture to such an extent that, I am certain it will have taken its own mental toll for real – but an actor needs to allow themselves to become embraced by that in order to tell the story in any kind of meaningful way. Joel does this with screams that made my eyes vibrate.
Elise, played with exceptional skill by Virginia Bealing, needs to switch and turn and flip her character in every direction, sometimes turning on a sixpence in a millisecond. Virginia here has the skill to do just that, clearly and enhances the story beautifully.
The inner voice (The Entity) comes from Martyn Lenon and is heard throughout the piece from several directions all over the place. It was so well performed that I thought it may have been recorded (meaning it could have gone through several “takes” before being used) but no, it was live and happening all over the place – this was suitably terrifying and definitely did the job.
The minions (Aaron Selby, Lisa Ford, Bethany Hart, Thomas Selby and Pete Blanchard) have little to say beyond whispers in Thomas’ head and rely on movement and being right in the face of Thomas to portray the swirling inner evil going on in his head. All of whom did this very well and scared the living hoo-haa out of me. Which brings me to their costumes, designed and created by Annie Henschel, which needed to look scary but also to be functional and facilitate complex and multiple movements all the way through. This, they did, and as they were designed to look like the wallpaper, enhanced the “Voices from the Walls” element of the play. As did the demon costume itself, which had a “Scary Tall Man” horror feel to it.
We also, thankfully, are given some light and calm in the form of his mental health nurse, Lisa. Sarah Phillips provides the contrast needed to help us be sure we are in the “real world” for her scenes and not in Thomas’s head. This she does with calm grace and helps us to feel that there is a chance of normality for Thomas.
A nice, mimimalist set from John Skinner and excellent story telling and scene shifting lights from Callum Watson made this a real eye opening, head turner of a piece and it hit me as it should.
It’s a short, punchy piece. Less than an hour long and, as I was driving home, I thought on that point and likened it to a new and exciting Welsh punky outfit I saw in the late 80s who would come on, bang out smash after smash of a tune, leave you sweaty and breathless then, after one hour, would leave the stage. No encore. You’d had all you needed.
So, if I can liken a play to the Manic Street Preachers and the effect they had on me, then you know that it was a hit for me.
