Review: Judgment Day (Old Red Lion Theatre)

Review by Aanya Sisodia

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A new theatre company, Fright Train, launches with its inaugural production, Judgment Day, at the Old Red Lion this autumn and, given that the play centres on a stationmaster, it is hard to miss the apt connection between the company’s name and its chosen text. Founded in 2026 by actor and director Matilda Ziegler, the company seeks to create a space in which to “bring together artists into a strong company”. What better way to do that than with an occasionally comic socio-political play?

Translated from German, Judgment Day follows a stationmaster whose mistake is “compounded by the town’s shifting morality”. The authorities bear down on him, whilst the locality turns on him, ultimately leading him to perjure himself. Playing the stationmaster, Craig Robinson leads the cast as he embodies the erratic humanity and moral conflict that Thomas Hudetz feels over the course of the play. His performance is convincing and intimidatingly in character, lending itself to a level of evolving unlikability in the character over the course of the play.

Over the course of the dynamic play, the stakes are raised both literally and emotionally as characters become more entangled in the web of lies, murder and justice.

Indeed, Matilda Ziegler played the female protagonist Anna in the UK premiere production of Judgment Day in 1989, now passing the mantle to her daughter Faye, who plays the same role in this new revival. Faye Ziegler’s portrayal of Anna softens the wildness of the show’s themes with a sense of consideration and tenderness, which ultimately doesn’t work in the character’s favour. Matilda Ziegler’s own performance was regularly punctuated by laughter, with her Frau Leimgruber often providing comic relief through her gossipy nosiness.

The cast multi-rolled in the translated play, portraying characters ranging from locals and members of law enforcement to ghosts. At one point, the ghosts confronting Hudetz are, for me, something akin to Macbeth, as they act as a metaphorical angel and devil while the protagonist battles his moral conflict.

The play also uses song stylistically as a cautionary force, sung well by Rafaela Nicolay, and includes live fiddle music played poignantly by Evie Hilyer-Ziegler, who also composed the sound design, which powerfully complemented the lighting design by Felix Gibbons and brought to life the trains passing the platform. Gibbons’ designs effectively use colour, directional movement, flashes and dim washes to convey the dark and tense themes of the play.

Under Ziegler’s direction, although the studio space occasionally feels too big for the action, she does well to use all elements of the acting area. All the doors are used for rooms as well as cast entrances and exits, while the inner acting area, backstage and the area outside the Playhouse are also used to convey directional and multidimensional sound, grounding the script in its context. However, the scenes or scene changes, although compellingly Brechtian, did sometimes feel abrupt.

Ultimately, the play proves to be a thought-provoking piece of drama which sparks debates about morality, the justice system and conflict, with a new and talented cast, live and originally composed music and effective technical design.

Judgment Day plays at Old Red Lion Pub and Playhouse until 10 October. Tickets from https://weareoldred.co.uk/whats-on/judgment-day/

Photos by Alex Storey.