Review: Rowling in It (King’s Head Theatre)

Review by Molly Gulvin

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe sees a huge variety of shows each year, spanning a wide variety of topics, and certainly doesn’t shy away from the wild and potentially sensitive. Laura Kay Bailey’s semi-autobiographical Rowling in It explores just one of these productions, where she takes on the role of JK Rowling. As an undoubtedly controversial figure, the decision to take this role led to backlash for Bailey, and she now uses this one-woman show to explore her involvement in the project and how her decision to play this role caused her to re-evaluate her life in a way that she didn’t expect. 

This work stems from Bailey’s role in the 2024 Fringe production TERF, in which she did indeed play Rowling, but elements of truth have, of course, been adapted and reworked for this production. The original production received mixed reviews from critics, but many agreed on a key fact: the show caused controversy within theatre circles and beyond. Now, Rowling In It gives Bailey the opportunity to respond to the discussion on her own terms. Much of the play itself does not serve as a discussion on Rowling’s views, but states them as fact: instead, it looks at Bailey’s account of playing this divisive character and how taking the opportunity led to public controversy that she was unprepared for.

The show is a fast-paced account of events, but this doesn’t detract from the clarity or intrigue of the narrative. Bailey’s well-written script plays to her strengths as an actor, being conversational and reinforcing the comedic baseline throughout. I was impressed by the way the show tackled issues head-on, whilst Bailey maintained her own clear perspective on the topics throughout: at no point did the tone of the play feel dismissive or demeaning. With that being said, my main feeling about the writing is that I wish there were more of it! After sixty minutes that felt like much less, I really felt like this show deserved to give itself more time to explore the narrative in greater depth, and let the social commentary sit for longer in those silent beats. With that being said, the show that I watched felt sharp and witty, and the one-woman aspect worked well with the topic at hand, particularly in the more isolated moments of the performance where it was easy to root for Bailey’s character. 

As a performer, Bailey is also highly skilled - providing an unfaltering performance throughout, she is flexible and manipulates herself into a variety of side characters with ease - and occasionally a slightly satirical accent! She has a difficult job in this play - to explain how she could take this role without condoning the ideology - but effectively brings audiences onside despite this fact. It is clear that her frustrations with her time in TERF have been channeled into the comedic portrayal of events (she acknowledges as much towards the end of the play) but she doesn’t let this detract from the importance of the issues at hand - not just the controversy of playing JK Rowling, but also other topics such as the difficulty of juggling being a working actor and a parent, and the struggle of maintaining socially correct opinions in a world of social media that is designed for younger and younger generations. Bailey particularly shows her range as a performer as the play develops, and these issues become more prominent in the show, and her personal connection with the narrative creates a charged performance.

It’s important to note again that this is not a play that is directly about the views of Rowling, but instead about Bailey’s experience in playing such a controversial role. Whilst it will inevitably be critiqued that the play never criticises Rowling or her views directly, in some ways I would argue that this is necessary. Having received her opportunity to outwardly critique Rowling in TERF, Bailey now takes the stage to explore a wider field of study. This play simply couldn’t exist whilst also entirely dismissing Rowling’s views - after all, if that had been the case, it is highly unlikely that Bailey would’ve taken the role of Rowling in the first place. Instead, the play presents a different narrative: one of an actor who takes a role as an opportunity above all else - as she notes, the opportunities to play a “villain character” in a satirical work are few and far between - and is forced to humanise a persona that is widely demonised. The play presents not as a conversation on Rowling’s own views (although the topic is impossible to avoid and handled well when it is raised) but instead as a conversation of the importance of theatre in general to handle these divisive topics. It highlights the importance of the arts in presenting thought-provoking concepts and how they must be addressed in order to be tackled. 

Under the direction of Dominic Shaw, the production runs with a cohesive vision throughout, and the narrative can be seen in all aspects of the performance. The comedic thread is never forgotten, flowing through the piece and re-emerging at suitable moments. The work’s vision can particularly be seen in its lighting design, under the supervision of Nina Morgan: a really effective moment for me was the lighting used when Bailey is answering questions from the press, which was similar to an interrogation and helped to reinforce the tension in the moment. PJ McEvoy’s video design is also well thought-out and reinforces comedic moments, particularly the use of video to display a group chat communicating in real time both before and during the show. However, there are times that the video design felt as though it was underused, especially due to the minimal set: the sense of authenticity might’ve been improved by using the visualisations to add to the setting what the sparse set does not.

This production is a truly important conversation to be having about portraying controversial topics and the fact that actors must play these roles that will not be favoured by the public. Today, Bailey is given the opportunity to say what she could not in 2024 and does so in what is a whirlwind of comedy and social criticism. Her performance is versatile and funny throughout, without shying away from the issues at hand. The play raises questions that are important to discuss and does so with a comedic front, leading to an entertaining performance.

Rowling in It plays at the King’s Head Theatre until 18th April. Tickets are available from https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/rowling-in-it-zwy4.

Photos by Lucy Hayes