Is 'Unicorn' at the Garrick Theatre as provocative as it makes out?: A Review

This past weekend I went to see the original play Unicorn, written by Mike Bartlett and directed by James Macdonald, at the Garrick Theatre. Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan play long-time married couple Polly and Nick who decide that their sex life has long been void of any excitement or passion. In a rather unexpected turn for Nick, Polly suggests they invite a third person into their relationship and that she already has a willing participant lined up: 28 year old Kate (Erin Doherty) who is a student in one of Polly’s writing classes. Hence the title ‘Unicorn’, a term which refers to finding the rare person who is prepared to join the relationship of an existing couple, similar to the rarity of finding a (mythical) unicorn. The play explores the ‘will they/won’t they’ dynamic of the throuple and whether it will successfully come into fruition. 

With a set up like this, it’s no wonder the play has been promoted as something provocative, explicit and potentially uncomfortable. So did it actually live up to the hype and was it any good?

It’s obvious to say that the onstage chemistry between Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan, who previously starred as married couple Hannah and Nathan in the BBC’s The Split, is palpable and Erin Doherty fits effortlessly into this pairing, bouncing off Walker (in particular) and Mangan with ease. It’s Polly who is first attracted to Kate and wants to ask her to join herself and Nick in a threesome, and I loved seeing the tender intimacy between Walker and Doherty’s characters blossom on stage whilst both acknowledge and pursue their attraction to Nick.

But by intimacy here I do not mean any explicit love scenes which one might expect from a self-professed ‘provocative’ play.

A few of the criticisms I have seen of Unicorn have suggested that it is not nearly as provocative as they were expecting because of the lack of physical action. And it’s true, there are no overly explicit, passionate scenes onstage. But I would argue that the provocativeness comes from the conversations that are had and oftentimes the humour expressed instead of the physical things we see. Polly, Nick and especially Kate have honest conversations about what it is they really want sexually and why it is that they should screw societal norms of monogamy and give the throuple a try. The young Kate, who is probably the wisest out of the three, makes a profound point: we have absolutely no representation of throuples in society, let alone successful ones, and that from birth we are constantly surrounded by the idea that a relationship is between two people only, but why? None of them know for certain that this relationship wouldn’t work, so why not give it a try? On top of the jokes about ‘butt play’, masturbating and the release of certain fluids, I felt the play met my expectations of provocativeness - not through what we see but through what is discussed. It certainly made you think and question norms around relationships and the expression of sexuality, which is arguably the goal.

The standout element for me, however, was the freedom of the script and flexibility of the actors. The three actors were clearly very comfortable with one another and the script that it felt like there was a lot of room for spontaneity in their performances and to make each performance different from the last, either by changing a few words or an enunciation here and there that caught the others off guard. This led to several moments of corpsing (breaking into laughter) by the actors during the performance I watched, often at particularly humorous lines, which as the audience made you even more invested in the story and in these characters because you were sharing in these really funny, sometimes provocative, unexpected moments. 

The only criticism I really have of the play doesn’t have much to do with its provocativeness but does concern the way it comes together and that is that the set design was extremely minimal (and dare I say quite boring). The stage was carved into a semicircle with a retracting hood at the back of the stage that went up and down at various moments to allow for entrances and exits, with only chairs anchoring and signposting the different scenes. For example, two swivel chairs were on the stage to signify that Kate and Nick were at a bar, two garden chairs for a scene at a cafe, and a bright orange sofa representing Polly and Nick’s living room, all in front of the blank semicircle hood. To some it might be positively minimalistic and encouraging you to focus more on just the actors, but for me it came across as lacklustre. It’s just as well that the performances counteracted this.

Doherty, Walker and Mangan at the play's end. Notice the minimal set design and the retracting hood behind the actors.

Ahead of its last week at the Garrick Theatre, I would say that Unicorn delivered in its ability to provoke and question sexual norms and to open up conversation. And it was really fun to see Nicola Walker swear so much too.

Images my own.