The King Stone ★★★★

A heartfelt tale of young love and the passage of time, The King Stone looks at what comes between people who love each other.

Kristen (Charlotte East) is destined for London and what she sees as a bigger life. Phil (Calum Lill) is content to work in the same pub he’s worked at since he was 13. From very different comic backgrounds, these young lovers seem destined to be pulled apart by their ambition and complacency.

This is a tried and true story formation, and one might be concerned it could all get a little cliché. But this is the show’s strength: East finds a way to tell the story with fresh, deft strokes.

While Kristen’s motivation is fairly straightforward – she wants more – Phil’s is a little more complex. Rather than just a lack of ambition, Phil’s desire to stay put is a fascinating mishmash of fear, pride and cultural nostalgia. He remains fascinated by and bound to the land, a dynamic that is explored through the motif of a half-real, half-imagined spectre of the White Hart King, a mythical figure bound to the land in his own turn.

This is a really interesting way of looking at men’s mental health, one of the writer’s focal areas. Talking about the land and our ties to it, our feelings about the soil beneath our feet become increasingly essential in times of rising nationalism, suicide, and civil unrest. East not only manages to navigate this perspective, but also finds space to explore sexual assault, poverty, and the passage of time.

The storytelling here is supported by strong performances and direction. East portrays her character at different ages with real zeal, and Lill puts on an astonishingly subtle and powerful performance as Phil. The movement (AK Godling) and intimacy work in this piece are also noteworthy for their quality – and, especially alongside Megan Lucas’ skilful and deft projection work and Ellie Isherwood’s expert music and sound design, form exceptional moments of movement and closeness that punctuate the story.

This is a very well-crafted piece. Even the set is top-notch, formed of nine cuboid stones that the cast play with – standing, sitting, and leaning against them. These stones also light up and form podiums for dramaturgical effect. Director Hannah Stone (no, really) has done a fantastic job pulling all of these elements together and making a piece that really feels like a complete whole.

An ode to the young lovers and lost souls of the East Midlands, a love letter to the land and a warning to those of us who would hide how we feel, the King Stone is a triumph.