Some Woman review: Anne-Marie Duff shines, Helen Edmundson's plot doesn't

Anne-Marie Duff delivers a magnificent central performance in Some Woman, the new drama by playwright Helen Edmundson now playing at the Dorfman theatre in London — but the production's far-fetched plot turns and underdeveloped characters undermine its powerful messages about prejudice. That is the verdict of the Guardian's review, published 16 October, which finds the show a study in contradiction: a wholly believable actress inside a story the critic can't believe.

What happens in the play?

Duff plays Julie, a mother, ex-wife and working woman whose already over-burdened life is upended by an incident at a tube station. There, an 11-year-old boy randomly and aggressively insults her. She challenges him — reasonably, the review stresses — and then, through what the critic calls "a series of unconvincing plot turns," she winds up facing a legal battle and a potential prison sentence.

The premise does the heavy lifting. Edmundson builds the drama around a moment of everyday confrontation that escalates into the courts, and the Guardian's critic reads the play as carrying powerful messages about prejudice. The problem sits in the machinery, not the message. As the review puts it, opposing forces tug against each other in the new drama, and the result is "a failed suspension of disbelief yet a convincing central performance."

Why does the casting work when the plot doesn't?

The review's core finding is a split between performance and construction. Duff, the critic writes, is "magnificent amid playwright Helen Edmundson's implausible plotting" and is "wholly believable" — the one element of the production the critic never doubts. Julie is written as a woman carrying multiple roles at once: parent, former partner, employee. Duff makes that accumulated pressure legible even when the events around her strain credulity.

The plotting is the other force. An insult from a child at a tube station becoming a potential prison sentence requires careful, step-by-step dramaturgy (the craft logic by which a play's events connect). The critic finds those steps unconvincing, and the underdeveloped supporting characters leave the escalation feeling engineered rather than inevitable.

What does this change for audiences?

For London theatregoers deciding on a ticket, the practical question is simple: does a great performance justify a shaky plot? On this review's evidence, Duff's work is the reason to go. The Dorfman — the National Theatre's mid-sized, flexible auditorium — gives the drama an intimate frame, and the critic's phrasing suggests the acting lands at close range even when the storytelling wobbles.

The wider so-what is about the play itself. A drama about prejudice that critics call powerful in intent but implausible in execution faces a harder path to a longer life beyond this run, since revivals tend to reward scripts that hold together. For now, Some Woman stands as a showcase for its lead: the Guardian's review closes the gap between what the play wants to say and what it manages to show, and Duff's Julie is what remains convincing.