Interview
Rating: ★★★★
Venue: Riverside Studios, London
Cast: Paten Hughes and Robert Sean Leonard 

Katya (Paten Hughes), a fiercely intelligent influencer turned movie star, is sick of being underestimated, objectified and misrepresented by journalists...especially the male ones.

When the fading political journalist Pierre Peters (Robert Sean Leonard) is assigned to interview her, he’s bitter and dismissive, but Katya has her own reasons for agreeing to the encounter. A tense evening in her Brooklyn apartment swiftly spirals into a volatile game of confession, confrontation, and manipulation.

When people think of influencers now, it's hard to avoid the stereotypes - "they have no talent", "they're objectively always beautiful", "always underestimated" and Katya is a 28 year old influencer-turned-actress who's being interviewed by political journalist Pierre, for the New York Courier. She arrives an hour late and he arrives having done little to no research; they only have the assumptions they've already made of each other. Pierre assuming that Katya "thinks impeachment is some kind of moisturiser" and Katya assuming Pierre is the kind of man "who confuses confidence with competence" when it comes to women. When their interview unfolds, we're let into an intense game of cat and mouse, where the predator and prey shift exponentially throughout. 

Based on a screenplay by Theodor Holman and adapted for the stage by Teunkie Van Der Sluijs, the writing of Interview is absolutely exceptional and wickedly clever. You never know in which direction the play will take you next and you're never quite sure who to trust, even leading up to the last few minutes of the production. 

The entirety of the two-handed play is set in Katya's lavish Brooklyn apartment, complete with a ridiculously extravagant bathtub in the centre of the room. The set design by Derek McLane is almost immersive, transporting you into the apartment alongside the pair with ease.

While the video design from IDontLoveYouAnymore (which was reminiscent of Jamie Lloyd's recent ventures with video cameras) should have worked well considering the content of the production, it fell slightly flat due to the positioning of the walls in the venue. At times, facial expressions couldn't be seen and text messages couldn't be read efficiently due to the unevenness of the backdrop. It was a shame because the amount of work that clearly went into the pre-recorded scenes could have bought an additional layer to the piece.

The acting from both Robert Sean Leonard and Paten Hughes was utterly brilliant, with Hughes particularly shining in the larger-than-life role of Katya. Hughes oozed with the charisma and charm her character so desperately needed. The intensity of the dance scene between the pair was sizzling with an almost uncomfortable chemistry; the back and forth between the dance matching the verbal dance between the duo at this point.

The 90-minute production flies by and you almost feel desperate to know more of Katya's story and what she does next. A play that's full of intrigue, manipulation and an intense game that you're never quite sure who will come out on top. A thriller that won't have you on the edge of your seat as such, but is most definitely thought-provoking and will keep you guessing throughout.