Private View, Jess Edwards’ debut solo play, opens with the unsettling charge of a relationship already tilting off-balance. A wealthy 38-year-old artist in recovery pursues a 23-year-old PhD candidate with a stark intensity. Her eagerness reads as clingy, controlling, and hard to trust. And yet, despite the warning signs – and the added vulnerability of never having been with a woman before – the younger woman steps toward her rather than away.
From there, the production, directed by Annie Kershaw and performed by Patricia Allison (A) and Stefanie Martini (B), plunges us deeper into a connection that burns hot, teetering on danger. It’s a sharp, unsettling study of queer love, coercive control, and the volatile physics of emotional pull.
Edwards’ writing around coercive control is particularly well realised. The script makes sharp, deliberate use of language associated with manipulation, including money, dependency, subtle power shifts, and threads these through a series of seemingly casual comments and actions that gradually accumulate into something far more problematic.
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Both actors deliver committed, nuanced performances, and it’s clear why they were cast. They are skilled and intensely watchable. However, the production relies heavily on the audience remembering the 15-year age gap between the unnamed duo. Visually, the staging and design do little to reinforce that distinction, and because both performers read as close in age, the power imbalance embedded in the writing doesn’t always land as hard as I suspect it might have if the actor’s age reflected that of the characters, as it is one of the structural vulnerabilities that allows the coercion to take hold.
Without that clearly perceivable gap, the relationship occasionally reads less like a profoundly uneven matchup and more like a toxic, mutually consenting entanglement (I use those words very tentatively). There are moments when A appears confident, even momentarily in control, and without a visible age contrast the sense of an unfair fight is somewhat diluted. This is ultimately not an issue of acting but of design.
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The play’s constant intensity works powerfully, but it does expose one area that feels underexplored. In reality, manipulative relationships often contain moments of charm and gentleness. I wanted some sort of interval that keeps someone returning even as the dynamic grows more damaging. The script tells us that B makes A feel special, but we rarely see it, which is fine but I wonder if we did whether the speed that the relationship progressed may have felt more logical.
The play makes early references to the characters’ families, particularly their fathers, which I thought was setting up some sort of explanation for their individual behaviours (think attachment styles and coping mechanisms). But this thread never meaningfully returns. If intended as context for their present behaviour, it could have been developed further; as written, it feels like an intriguing path not fully explored. But then, if I’m being honest with myself, if a character at age 38 treated another badly because of previous emotional turmoil, let alone someone vulnerable, I’m not sure how sympathetic I would be. I guess it’s all in the packaging.
Related article: Private View: A Queer, Sexy, and Unsettling New Play Coming to Soho Theatre
Some laughter arose in moments of the play that didn’t seem to come from amusement… more like disbelief at how quickly the relationship escalated, and some audacious quips. And, it is interesting that the play uses only two characters. In real life, friends often notice coercive patterns before the person experiencing them, but here no such external perspective exists.
As I’m writing this, I consider that perhaps, in this staging, the audience acts as the concerned observers. We were close enough to see the danger, yet powerless to intervene. And even if we could, would we?
The play also makes a crucial point: coercive control isn’t limited to heterosexual dynamics. Same-sex relationships can harbour the same unhealthy patterns, and A’s inexperience with queer intimacy adds another layer of vulnerability beyond the age and financial gaps.
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As a debut, Private View is bold, engaging and unwavering in its focus. Edwards distils the messy, electric, and unsettling edges of this type of love with striking clarity, and packing this into 75 minutes is no small achievement. Its sell-out run feels fully deserved, and if more tickets surface, it’s worth grabbing one. Minor imperfections aside, the play tackles a topic that demands conversation.
Nonchalant x
Molly is a full-time journalist based in London covering legal and business, alongside culture, music, arts, and tech.
