MickeyJoTheatre: ★★★ REVIEW – “Interview” at Riverside Studios, London

Host: MickeyJoTheatre
Date: August 31, 2025
Episode Theme: In-depth review and critique of the London stage adaptation of Interview, an intense two-hander exploring power, celebrity, and generational divides, starring Robert Sean Leonard and Peyton Hughes.

Overview

MickeyJo, a professional theatre critic and leading social media voice for theatre fans, delivers his full review of Interview, currently playing at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London (Off-West End). The play, adapted from a 2003 Dutch film (remade in English and Hindi versions), explores the complex, combustible dynamics between a veteran journalist and a famous young actress– now, in this iteration, a social media megastar. Through an evening’s tense and provocative encounter, the script mines the shifting boundaries of professional, personal, and gendered power in a media-saturated world.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Concept & Contemporary Resonance

• Interview dramatizes the “transactional intimacy” of a press interview, interrogating the anxiety and power play inherent to being both “seen” and “framed” by the media.
• The dynamic reflects the current digital age, exploring how social media amplifies both scrutiny and self-expression.
• MickeyJo sees the material as “expanding on the inherently fascinating dynamic of an interview,” capturing the contemporary fear of being misrepresented or instantly “canceled” online. (05:25)

2. The Characters & Their Worlds

• Pierre (Robert Sean Leonard): Veteran, jaded American journalist, recently sidelined due to career transgressions. Traditionally a political writer, he’s relegated to “fluffy” celebrity interviews as punishment, chafing at the assignment during a fictional but topical political scandal.
• Katya (Peyton Hughes): Social media “It girl”–an actress whose career is rooted in online virality rather than “serious art,” bringing millions to cinema screens and wielding a seven-figure Instagram following.
• The adaptation frames Katya’s influencer status as both a source of Pierre’s disdain and part of her struggle for legitimacy.

“Reach doesn’t equal worth. Mass doesn’t equal merit.”
— MickeyJo quoting Pierre, criticizing Katya’s digital fame (10:15)

3. Themes: Power, Gender, Social Media

• The play investigates the generational and cultural gulf between the characters, embodied in their attitudes toward fame, integrity, and public life.
• MickeyJo highlights the gendered undertones:
  • Katya endures sexist dismissal from press, especially “older white men.”
  • Pierre’s conduct and resentment are shaped by exclusion from his serious beat and a palpable nostalgia for the “old” media order.
• The “power struggle” between them takes forms ranging from cold indifference and mutual provocation to overt psychosexual tension.

“[Katya] tells Pierre, ‘We all want to be seen, Pierre. Not followed, but seen.’”
— MickeyJo on Katya’s longing for authentic recognition (10:00)

4. Plot & Structure

• Action is confined to a single, chaotic evening in Katya’s Brooklyn loft after Pierre is forced to wait over an hour for her to return.
• The official “interview” barely takes place. Instead, the two spiral into verbal sparring, with Katya often taking the upper hand and reframing Pierre’s disinterest as journalistic failure.
• Each uses the threat of exposure: Katya harnesses her social media as a weapon (broadcasting live, wielding cancel-culture clout), and both contemplate revealing each other’s secrets in a kind of mutually assured destruction.

5. Creatives & Stagecraft

• Direction & Adaptation: Turnkey van der Sluice, based on the original film and screenplay, with sharp, modern adjustments.
• Design & Aesthetics:
  • Set: Derek McLean – a “gorgeous Brooklyn loft” rich in detail.
  • Video Design: “I Don’t Love You Anymore” – dynamic projections of social feeds, headlines, and camcorder footage, evoking an Ivo van Hove aesthetic.
  • Sound: Atagona – atmospheric but occasionally heavy-handed, veering from bassy intensity to “plink plonk, lo-fi” that humorously reminded MickeyJo of Animal Crossing.

“The video camera in this context…starts to feel like the modern-day answer to Chekhov’s gun…[what] it does record ends up being weaponizable ammunition.”
— MickeyJo (14:10)

6. Critical Assessment of Themes

• While he applauds the production’s deep dive into the mercurial journalist/subject relationship, MickeyJo finds the play less rigorous on the subject of influencer culture:

“I don’t really think that this was the authentic investigation into influencer culture I have been waiting for. I remain hopeful that we will see that play, but it wasn’t this one.”
— MickeyJo (09:30)

• The political subplot (impeachment scandal, “Jeff Bezos”–type owner) is described as inert window-dressing, serving more to bulk out Pierre’s backstory than advance the drama.

7. Performances

Robert Sean Leonard (“Pierre”)

• Embodies the world-weary, snarkily erudite journalist with “conversational pith” and an “evident enjoyment of his own turns of phrase.”
• Reveals layers of personal disappointment, professional pride, and a curdled sense of cultural irrelevance.
• Has a signature quirk: hearing a phrase, then breaking into a pop-song lyric, leading to an icebreaker duet of “Wonderwall.”

Peyton Hughes (“Katya”)

• Navigates Katya’s rapid switches between calculated seduction, brittle anger, and earnest vulnerability.
• Delivers standout moments, including an on-stage demonstration of multiple types of “crying” learned from acting coaches, oscillating between poise and pain.

“Better to be funny than to be the joke.”
— Katya (as quoted by MickeyJo, 22:50)

• The tension between their acting styles (his reserved, hers explosively open) enlivens the generational conflict.

“She makes her feel like a real human being throughout this, and critically, one who has experienced pain in spite of…a charmed life.”
— MickeyJo (22:15)

8. Critiques & Comparisons

• MickeyJo draws a parallel to Venus in Fur, another play about actor/director power games, but notes Interview lacks fresh ground on influencer culture or politics.
• He sometimes finds the structure repetitive, circling the same arguments without new insight, and says the play “spirals around a lot of the same topics…before eventually getting somewhere.”
• Still, the escalating mind games and “emotional foreplay” keep the evening compelling.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There is this strange sort of transactional intimacy to the dynamic that arises. Interviewer and interviewee…an unspoken anxiety about the way their words are going to be interpreted and framed…”
  — MickeyJo (04:25)

• “Her hope in all of this is that she will finally be represented honestly and authentically… She tells Pierre, ‘We all want to be seen, Pierre. Not followed, but seen.’”
  — MickeyJo (10:00)

• “Reach doesn’t equal worth. Mass doesn’t equal merit.”
  — Pierre, via MickeyJo (10:15)

• “The video camera in this context…is obviously going to be fateful. In this context it really works because the thing that it does record ends up being weaponizable ammunition.”
  — MickeyJo (14:10)

• “Better to be funny than to be the joke.”
  — Katya (22:50)

• “A highlight moment comes when discussing her practicing with her acting coach. She displays several variations of on screen crying…as well as a little bit of dramatic foreshadowing…”
  — MickeyJo (23:40)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:50 – Intro & show background; summary of original film(s) and premise
• 03:30 – Thematic focus: power dynamics in media & celebrity interviews
• 07:00 – Character breakdown: Pierre’s frustrations, Katya’s influencer status
• 10:00 – Examining gender, generational, and social media tension
• 12:11 – Creative team & design: sets, projections, direction
• 14:10 – Video and tech as dramatic “Chekhov’s gun”
• 20:22 – Acting performances: detailed review of both leads
• 22:50 – Notable quotes & scene highlights; “Better to be funny than to be the joke.”
• 25:50 – Final verdict, context in London’s Off-Broadway-ification

Conclusion

Despite some narrative repetitiveness and a missed opportunity for deeper influencer critique, Interview is a taut, modern two-hander crackling with power games, gender friction, and smart stagecraft. The chemistry between Robert Sean Leonard’s weary gravitas and Peyton Hughes’s mercurial wit is its real draw, making the production “utterly real” and worth attending—especially for fans of psychologically rich drama.

“They feel like utterly real people. And that’s thanks in large part to these fantastic acting performances, which are also a huge part of the reason why you should go and check out Interview for yourselves at Riverside Studios.”
— MickeyJo (26:10)

Runs until September 27, 2025, at Riverside Studios, London.
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