Mr Thrushby’s Adventure by Esme Waters review

In the warm, deep-red surroundings of the Theatre Royal Windsor’s Circle Bar, Esme Waters’ Mr Thrushby’s Adventure unfolded as a staged reading that felt far closer to a complete evening of theatre than a preview. The audience sat in just four short rows, close enough to catch every flicker of expression and each quick shift of attention as the story moved. The bar itself remained present to one side, a gentle reminder that we were in a real, convivial room rather than the sealed black box I have experienced in some readings. It gave the performance the atmosphere of a tucked-away storytelling salon, intimate, focused, and quietly thrilling.

Waters’ script, a wartime crime caper set in January 1940, introduces Mr Thrushby, a retired man in late life whose routines have become both refuge and trap. An unexpected disruption sends his ordered world off-kilter, and what follows becomes a deft blend of suspense and drawing-room farce: social niceties collide with urgency, misunderstandings multiply, and the seemingly ordinary proves far more combustible than it first appears. Beneath the comedy sits something tender and recognisable, a portrait of late-life awakening and the stubborn human urge to feel fully alive again.

Even in staged-reading form, the pacing was impressively controlled under Rafael Solimeno-Harris’s direction. Transitions were clean, and the pacing did exactly what this kind of piece demands: it tightened like a thriller, then released into farce, with tension rising in steady steps. As a script-in-hand reading it asked the audience to imagine the entrances, exits and physical anarchy of farce, which will no doubt bloom further when fully staged. With less visual noise, and less physical movement to pull the eye away, the writing came through with unusual clarity, and the audience could follow every turn of intention. It sharpened the experience, not least because it encouraged the room to listen closely, and to notice how much of the comedy lives in rhythm, interruption, and status shifts inside the dialogue itself. In a fully staged farce, the revolving-door bustle can sometimes cost you a line or two. Here, nothing was missed.

Waters builds atmosphere through dialogue rather than spectacle. Conversations overlap, half-arguments and half-theories. The unease rises naturally, yet humour flickers throughout – dry, self-aware, and timed with precision. The laughter feels earned, not inserted, giving the play a buoyancy that offsets its mounting tension.

The Windsor Words Workshop ensemble performed with full commitment. This was not a case of actors simply reading lines. Faces stayed alive to the moment, voices differentiated character with care, and gestures arrived naturally, suggesting the physical life of the play without forcing it. Three of the older gentlemen, in particular, emerged as gloriously eccentric in performance: Colonel Buckingham-Wentworth, bluff and excitable; Doctor Rothington, clipped and professional with a dry edge; and Dunford, the former Scotland Yard detective whose calm authority carried a subtle menace. Each was sharply distinct, and together they gave the piece much of its tonal snap.

Around them, the household and its visitors were equally well drawn. Mr Thrushby himself was played with fussy precision that never lost its tenderness, making his late-life restlessness quietly affecting. Sam brought restless charm and quick intelligence, the perfect foil to Thrushby’s fussy precision, and their unlikely bond became the emotional spine of the piece. Felicity, Thrushby’s sister, fizzed with flirtatious energy, while Mrs Rowley grounded proceedings with brisk, working-class common sense. The overall impression was of a company that had done more than learn lines: eyes lifted from pages to engage, small gestures landed naturally, and the comedy timing felt instinctive rather than merely rehearsed.

A staged reading inevitably hints at what full staging will later unleash, especially in a piece with farce in its bloodstream. Yet this format also revealed what the play already has in abundance: a strong narrative engine, a humane wit, and characters whose inner shifts feel earned. By the close, the piece leaves you with a satisfying sense of movement, not simply plot movement, but the movement of a person stepping out of routine and into possibility.

This Circle Bar reading made a strong case for Waters’ play as both entertainment and something quietly more resonant. It has humour, warmth, and just enough wartime shadow to give its escapism bite. I will certainly return for the fully staged performances at Playhouse East’s Fringe Feb on 11th February, where the physical farce can properly bloom.

Cast & Creatives

Cast to be provided soon

A tightly paced wartime thriller with a sharp comic streak

Summary

Esme Waters’ Mr Thrushby’s Adventure is a tightly paced wartime caper that blends thriller tension with a sharp comic streak. In an intimate Circle Bar staged reading at Theatre Royal Windsor, the writing came through with unusual clarity, carried by crisp timing, eccentric characters, and a quietly humane undercurrent. Funny, tense, and warmly observed, it makes a persuasive case for the play’s full staging to come.

User Review

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