Review: The Sneeze

📍 Golden Goose Theatre

🗓️ 13th May 2026

🎟️ PR Invite

The New Rep are back at Golden Goose Theatre — this time with their production of Michael Frayn’s adaptation of Chekhov’s The Sneeze.

The production consists of four one-act plays and four short stories.

Act One consists of The Drama, The Alien Corn, The Sneeze and The Bear, while Act Two includes The Inspector General, Plots, Swan Song and The Proposal — taken from a larger, partially crossed-out list displayed on the wall behind the action.

Directed by Edward Neale, this production had everything from slapstick comedy to dance and mime — it was certainly a chaotic evening, but by no means in a bad way.

Over the course of two hours (plus an interval), we were introduced to each piece by a narrator at the beginning, who set the scene and gave context for each story.

I will say that I found some of the short stories more interesting and entertaining than others, and some perhaps felt a little longer than they needed to.

What was impressive, though, was that the momentum never dropped between each piece — it never really felt like the production needed a full reset before moving into the next story.

Sometimes, when watching a show, set changes can break up the momentum, but there was no time to be distracted by that here.

Cast members burst onto the stage delivering hilarious interludes while the set changed behind them, including parodies of well-known songs. Two favourites of mine were two chefs singing “No Oven, No Pie” and a song about IKEA sung to the tune of “Wild Rover”.

It didn’t end there — with dancing, more singing and a hilarious mime act that had the audience fully engaged, especially with the cast interacting with them throughout.

Lots of fun, plenty of chaos, and all presented wonderfully by a cast that clearly put everything they had into it. It’s always clear when watching The New Rep perform that they work wonderfully together and bounce off each other really well — particularly in the comedy pieces.

The seven members of The New Rep theatre company performing in this production were Mason Dhokia, Iwan Morris, Olivia Baird, Tilda Fassih, Gruff Williams, Evie Butler and Che Tligui.

Each performer shifted seamlessly between characters throughout the evening. “Overdramatic” is probably the best way to describe many of the characters across the different pieces, and this cast absolutely committed to that energy.

Whether it was an unfortunate sneeze during an evening at the theatre, a proposal going wrong, or an unexpected visitor suddenly falling in love, the cast fully embodied their characters throughout. My only slight criticism would be that, at times, there was perhaps a little too much shouting, but overall the performances were very enjoyable to watch.

The cast kept the audience guessing throughout — at one point even leading me to believe the show was over, before revealing it was actually a clever segue into the next piece.

Lighting played a fantastic role in this particular moment, but it was also effective throughout the evening in capturing and elevating the essence of each scene. The set pieces were fairly minimal, but in a production so focused on the dramatic comedy of the stories, they worked well in supporting each scene.

There certainly was a lot to take in with this one, but it made for an enjoyable, high-energy evening filled with laughter, songs and chaos — with a bit of genuine emotion thrown in too.