Theatre review - The Weatherman

Human trafficking and slavery are a brutal reality in the UK. Eugene O’Hare attempts to tackle these troubling subjects in his debut play. 

The Weatherman showcases some terrific writing and Alice Hamilton’s atmospheric production crackles with energy and Pinteresque menace.

O Rourke (Alec Newman) and Beezer (Mark Hadfield), are middle-aged bachelors living together in a dingy London flat and stewing in past disappointments. Like a nightmarish version of the Likely Lads, they are two men who life has passed by.

O’ Hare has written superb monologues for his male characters. However, the poor Romanian child, twelve-year-old Mara (Niamh James), who their shady landlord, Dollar (David Schaal), deposits into their safekeeping, in return for six free months free rent and a weekly allowance, is left mute.

It swiftly becomes clear that Mara is suffering unimaginable distress as a sex slave. But she is effectively silenced by the men, who can’t speak her language, and by O’Hare who, inexplicably, denies her a voice. Even Dollar’s henchman, Turkey (Cyril Nri), is given a backstory.

O Rourke eventually comes to his senses and recognises the full horror of the situation and what he has signed up to. But it is too late for him to save Mara (and perhaps himself). Beezer, the titular weatherman, (a failed meteorologist), appears too soaked in alcohol to offer any hope of redemption.

There are some brilliant scenes between the men and O’Hare is clearly a writer to watch

– it’s no surprise to learn that he is also an actor. Nevertheless, his play would have benefitted from a sharper focus on what it purports to be about – the shocking demand for and fate of trafficked girls in this country.

Park Theatre200 
Running until 14 September