On a train from Ljubljana to Budapest, two strangers meet and everything changes. This is the gripping premise of Poor Shirley Must Make Her Escape, the must-see tragi-comedy. Writer/Director Tom George Hammond’s powerful piece explores what happens when one person running from her past collides with another desperately searching for a future. Their chance encounter becomes a transformative confrontation with dreams, regrets, and the courage to face what comes next.
Set on a train, the chance encounter between two strangers, a woman in a wedding dress and a backpacking traveller, starts the revealing of each of their stories. How they got to this point and what happens next.
It’s an interesting piece of theatre. Why is the woman in a wedding dress? What is the traveller doing? Their early stilted conversations slowly make way for a little more trust and flow in their conversation. The script is engaging and I did invest in their stories.
The set design was a little confusing. A table, a couple of chairs didn’t look like a train seating setup. And bundles of luggage on both sides which are not very realistic when most trains have luggage racks. The gilt edged picture frame filling in for a train window didn’t really work. The lights are rigged symmetrical to the venue but the seating bank is off-centre. The seats within the seating bank only having one aisle placing the audience off-centre and the window frame also off-centre. The performance space also felt odd with the rear of the space empty and the stage left section empty. It felt like the venue had four different “centres” for this layout which really skewed the focus of the lights. The rear lighting bar very visible and pulsing became irritating – presumably to show changing light on the window to represent travel. But the actual lights showed this more vividly than the desired effect on the window.
Just when you wonder what’s going to happen next, a third passenger, the Soldier, arrives, sits in the carriage and starts to chat. He doesn’t speak English and our two lead actors don’t speak his language (Hungarian?). This leads to some laugh out loud hilarious attempts at communication between all three. With the politeness of the English mixed with his affable personality the play becomes a glorious farce! Attempts to discover who he is and if he might be a threat are delightfully performed.
I’m not sure there’s a deep message or even a solid resolution but being a fly on the wall of their personal journeys while on a train journey makes for a delightful evening.
Photo credit: Olivier Sublet @oliviersubletactor and @evolcreation_official.
CAST
Shirley: Maya McQueen
Kieran: Will Taylor
Soldier: Daniel Copeland
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer/Director: Tom George Hammond
Lighting Design: Nurul Wardani & Sammy Kissin
Poster Design & Creative Consultant: Sean Turner
Poster Photography, Hair & Make-up: Wen Hsin Lee
Producer: Ella McQueen
Producer for Evol Creations: Olivier Sublet
Creative Producers for Captain’s Daughter: Maya McQueen & Tom Hammond
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Union Theatre
229 Union Street, London SE1 0LR
Performance Dates: 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th & 16th November 2025
Time: 19:45 (16th at 18:00)
Ticket link: https://uniontheatre.biz/show/poor-shirley-must-make-her-escape/