Review: Welcome to Pemfort, Soho Theatre ****

Review: Welcome to Pemfort, Soho Theatre

There is something instantly recognisable about the gift shop of a minor English heritage site. It is a world of overpriced fudge, historical tea towels and a specific kind of quietude that suggests the rest of the world has forgotten you exist. At Soho Theatre, Alys Whitehead’s set for Welcome to Pemfort captures this perfectly. It is a crumbling, atmospheric microcosm of an isolated world. Yet, as Sarah Power’s exceptional new play unfolds, this dusty sanctuary becomes a pressure cooker for four souls trying to navigate the messy intersection of history and accountability.

The play centres on the preparations for a “Living History” event at Pemfort, a site with a violent past ranging from 13th-century battles to 20th-century tragedies. But the real drama lies in the present. Power’s writing is complex and patient, drawing characters with a precision that avoids easy tropes.

Sean Delaney’s Kurtis is a staggering achievement. Recently released from prison and brought into the fold by the maternal, fleece-wearing Uma (a wonderfully warm Debra Gillett), Kurtis is a man vibrating with the effort of being “good.” Delaney portrays him with a raw, mumbly vulnerability that makes his pain palpable. Even as the script reveals the darker corners of his past, you cannot look away from his struggle for a second chance. It is a performance that demands empathy without ever asking for easy forgiveness.

In contrast stands Glenn, played with terrific nuance by Ali Hadji-Heshmati. Glenn is the officious, sword-wielding, de facto leader of the group. While it is clear he is neurodiverse, the play treats this with refreshing dignity. He is precise, pedantic and occasionally frustrating, but he is never “wrong.” His self-awareness and his deep-seated need for order provide the play’s structural spine and much of its sharp, observational humour.

Welcome to Pemfort, Soho Theatre
Ali Hadji-Heshmati as Glenn in Welcome to Pemfort
Photo credit: camilla_greenwell — *Ali Hadji-Heshmati* as Glenn in Welcome to Pemfort
Photo credit: camilla_greenwell

The chemistry between the four-strong cast, rounded out by Lydia Larson as the sensible, deer-rescuing Ria, is seamless. The gift shop setting acts as a brilliant leveller. Whether they are debating the merits of turnip pottage or illustrated timelines, the mundane tasks provide the “theatre” through which their deeper histories emerge.

The shop is more than a backdrop. It is the glue that brings these disparate characters together, which makes the threat of exclusion feel so visceral. It is profoundly moving to watch the gates of Pemfort potentially swing shut on Kurtis, just as they have everywhere else in his life. By the end, we are forced to grapple with a haunting ambiguity. When a person like Kurtis is finally “gone,” the play leaves us to wonder if he has simply moved on to the next cold doorstep or if he has reached a more permanent, tragic vanishing point.

Director Ed Madden navigates the shift from gentle social comedy to gut-punching moral inquiry with deft assurance. While the play asks massive, uncomfortable questions about justice and the shelf-life of a crime, it never loses its human pulse.

Welcome to Pemfort is a haunting, beautifully written piece of theatre that refuses to offer easy answers. It suggests that while we can curate the history of a building, our own pasts are far less easy to tidy away for the tourists.