Review: FATHERLAND at Hampstead Theatre

Winston (Jason Thorpe) has been going through stuff. To distract himself, he has completed renovations to a school bus, which he first began refitting during COVID. Now is the time to take his fun daughter Joy (Nancy Farino) on a trip to County Mayo to discover more about his mysterious father and other potential Irish relatives. The overarching difficulty with this plan is that his daughter is also working through her own issues, and the last thing she feels like doing is embarking upon an unplanned road trip, which will involve long conversations with her father, ferries, and having to use the onboard bus toilet, complete with a homemade poo pipe!

Thrown into the mix are interspersed scenes between Winston and Claire (Shona Babayemi), who is weighing up whether to become his legal representative, despite initially harbouring serious misgivings about the manner in which Winston shares or withholds material information pertinent to his situation. Gradually, through her patient questioning, we learn that he is being sued because one of his client’s has not responded well to the life coaching service he provided. But just how serious was the outcome, and significantly, just how substantial was Winston’s influence over matters.

Nancy Farino as Joy in Fatherland. Photo by Pamela Raith

Nancy Farino’s wordy three hander (in which she also plays the part of Joy) requires a degree of patience and acceptance that Winston’s annoyingly upbeat character hides a fundamentally flawed and irritating man. His capacity for projection is challenged during the latter stages of the play, but in Thorpe’s hands he is beyond irritating and there are multiple occasions where you want to shake him from his male self-delusion. His best and worst trait, appears to be tenacity. Like a dog with a bone he convinces Joy to join him on his Mayo quest whilst blankly ignoring her reticence and unwillingness. He sees his life as a calling to encourage (bludgeon?) others to engage, to push themselves and break out of their comfort zones. He seems less inclined to accept the damage his hare brained schemes and half-baked plans can cause, but there are glimmers of a man who feels genuine remorse that his behaviour may have resulted in harm or cause disappointment in those he cares for. Indeed, nothing a good therapist and life coach couldn’t help him with.

Ms Farino’s character-led dialogue writing lends itself to a 1 hour TV drama. For those who’d like to see FATHERLAND in its current format, the play continues downstairs at Hampstead until 29th November.