MONSTER at Seven Dials Playhouse: What If the Real Horror Was What We Buried?
Can a child who kills ever be forgiven? And what happens when the past knocks on the door of the present, still bloodstained and breathing?
Somewhere in the drab fog of Glasgow, a teenage girl dreams of running away. Her name is Kayleigh, she’s 15, and life has already cornered her into an existence where survival is the only option. Her home is violent, her friendships are obsessive, and the only glimmer of freedom flickers on a distant island — the Isle of Muck. But the escape never happens. Instead, a baby dies.
MONSTER, Abigail Hood’s bone-chilling, soul-stirring play that sent shockwaves through its first run, returns with a vengeance this autumn — this time taking over the Seven Dials Playhouse from 24 September to 18 October. Critically acclaimed, award-winning and unflinching in its approach, it brings together six actors (two from the original production) in a performance that asks its audience: can we ever outgrow the darkest parts of ourselves?
Inspired by real-life cases that once paralysed the UK with grief and outrage — the tragic story of Mary Bell, the murder of James Bulger — the play doesn’t fictionalise the headlines, but mines their emotional wreckage. Kayleigh isn’t a real girl. But she could be.
The story shifts between two decades: 2006, when the murder takes place, and the present day, when adult Kayleigh must reckon with what she’s done, and with what society has decided she now is. Monster becomes a meditation on cyclical violence — a thread that runs from an abusive home to a senseless death — and the fault lines that trauma carves through memory, identity and fate.
Writer Abigail Hood spent years immersed in research, reading the biographies of Mary Bell — a child convicted in the 1960s of manslaughter in a case that gripped the UK — one from the time of her trial, the other written decades later — and emerged with more questions than answers. What happens to a child labelled “monster” before they’ve even become an adult? What kind of justice exists for those who grow up behind walls of abuse? Can redemption exist without forgiveness — and does it even matter if it doesn’t?
The production also supports Advance, a charity working with women and girls affected by domestic abuse, sexual violence and the criminal justice system — reinforcing that what unfolds onstage is part of a much bigger story, one still being written.
For more information, or to donate, please visit www.advancecharity.org.uk
Venue: Seven Dials Playhouse,1A Tower Street, London WC2H 9NP
Dates: 24th September – 18th October
More information: https://www.sevendialsplayhouse.co.uk/shows/monster
Elena Leo is the Culture & Lifestyle Editor of Ikon London Magazine.
