Review: The Habits, Hampstead Theatre - fizzes with humour
11/03/2025
The Habits is set in a board game cafe where Jess (Ruby Stokes), Maryn (Sara Hazemi) and Milo (Jamie Bisping) meet to escape into a world of Dungeons & Dragons dwarfs, wizards and the mysterious Nightmare King.
Cafe owner Dennis (Paul Thornley) is also running away from something, and it's not just the fact that everyone else is playing Monopoly.
But real life is knocking against the door of their created fantasy landscape. It's there in the banter and bickering about Brexit, politics and gender, which influences how they treat other characters in the game.
There is also the real life that is closer to home that tumbles into the game through their conversations and phone call interruptions: the stressful job, the reluctance to commit to anything and the raw grief.
The stage is set up 'in the round' with just a table and chairs in the middle. Knowing the game-playing setting, I was a little worried at the start that the characters might spend a lot of their time sitting with their back to chunks of the audience.
But it is well directed; the actors move around the space seamlessly so that it feels neither static nor as if you are missing a particular actor.
The Habits fizzes with humour. The witty lines and funny quips blend seamlessly with camaraderie and quieter, more contemplative and sometimes moving moments.
Ruby Stokes shines as the overenthusiastic dungeon master racked with grief and who doesn't want the game to end. She draws you into the games, into the world they are imagining, just like Dennis's initially reluctant D&D-playing girlfriend Bev (Debra Baker) likes to point out.
The Habits is about trying not to confront that which is painful and difficult, but it does it with humour and pathos, and I'm giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Habits, Hampstead Theatre
Written by Jack Bradfield
Directed by Ed Madden
Cast: Debra Baker, Jamie Bisping, Sara Hazemi, Ruby Stoke and Paul Thornley
Running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes without an interval
Booking until 5 April, for more information and to buy tickets visit the Hampstead Theatre website.
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