Understudy No.5. hits the London scene

Hadrian Conyngham. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Understudy No. 5, written by Hadrian Conyngham, performed at The Old Red Lion pub, Islington, London, then on to the Etcetera Theatre, Camden, London from 14 to 15 October 2026. Directed by Warren Rusher.

Review by Emilia Matyja.

In a theatre, a janitor sweeps the stage floor after a day of rehearsals. During the banal clean-up, he takes a fancy to the props on the floor and discovers that when he touches them, they possess him.

A coin turns him into a scheming Benvolio, a guitar ages him into an old man, a scarf forces him to cry out only in two-syllable units, and a shovel makes him an anti-poetry, pro-prose communist preacher, raising moral questions and cracking a joke that ties the hopscotch pattern of the piece: “infinite jest is entirely unfunny.”

The janitor, possessed by minor Shakespearean characters, lends his body to give them life, voice, ambition, and regrets. Shakespearean rhyme has also never been funnier – later dismantled by characters with lines like “What’s a caesura to a working man?” – and the play becomes a witty meta-comedy that highlights humour in opposing perspectives. It tells of lives ensnared and signified by their props and objects, all the while, in the back of our minds, we think, where is the janitor?

Hadrian Conyngham. Photo courtesy of the artist.

It’s episodic and entertaining, with just the right amount of whiplash when we’re ripped from the world of preaches on ownership and sing-song about pickaxe and spade to the laments of an older man as he reaches the end of his life. The constant idea of ‘Who takes the voice now?’ creates ideological contrast and timely comedy. In other moments, the audience wonders how to reconcile old nostalgia, drenched in regret, only to be thrust back into another’s stretched and unyielding ambition; from being trapped by language to being trapped in a body.

Laughter erupts from a glance alone, especially at the moment of the first possession, and even more so when it is repeatedly tested to see how it works. Physicality textures every moment; with Dan Hardwell as Movement Coordinator, the production blurs the line between mind and body in Hadrian’s psychophysical performance. The possessions exhaust the janitor, feel potent, and even feature a character becoming increasingly strangled by iambic tetrameter, where the comedy turns tragic, and the character comes to a wonderful silence. The audience holds their breath to see what she will say now that she is free of form.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Hadrian Conyngham is a transmasc actor, writer, and musician. His favourite character was a villainous Benvolio in Star-Cross*d for Camden Fringe 2025 – which tinder-sparked the character in his first play, Understudy No. 5, and adds a brilliant self-reference.

Understudy No. 5 will be performed at Etcetera Theatre from 14 to 15 October 2026 at 7 pm. Etcetera Theatre is based above the Oxford Arms Pub, 265 Camden High Street, Camden, London.

Hadrian Conyngham: https://hadrianconyngham.com