The Elusive Truth as the Higher Power
“We all want to be seen. Not watched. Not followed. Seen . . .”
Katya
What can we believe? Was it a sow feeding tiger cubs or a bereft mother tiger feeding piglets? We used to be told that the camera doesn’t lie but AI now casts more doubt than photo shopping ever did. So with journalism, gone is the integrity, and with influencers, the skewed at best, distorted and dishonest at worst, version of the truth, is everywhere. We simply do not know who and what to believe anymore.
Interview showing at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith is an adaptation by Teunkie Van Der Sluijs of the 2003 Dutch film written by journalist and screenwriter, Theodor Holman and directed by Theo van Gogh. It is about a fading political journalist Pierre Peters (Robert Sean Leonard) who, instead of covering the Vice President’s anticipated impeachment in Washington DC, is sent by his editor to Brooklyn, New York to interview a social influencer, about whom, he knows nothing. Crucially he is deliberately unprepared, resenting not being able to cover the impeachment.
Pierre’s interviewee, Katya (Paten Hughes), an influencer turned movie star hates journalists, especially male ones who do not do their background research. She wants him to research her and be awed. The play is set in a vast Brooklyn warehouse converted to apartment living, with projections over the brick walls and windows designed by the curiously named creative IDONTLOVEYOUANYMORE. Prominent in her open space floor is a Victorian style bath with feet, a souvenir which featured in one of Katya’s movies.
Pierre says he gave up drinking with Truth as his higher power, part of the 12 Step recovery from alcoholism programme, when we see him before the interview. He also fears he is being put out to pasture, kept away from Washington on the eve of the vital impeachment news. Pierre complains that she kept him waiting outside for an hour after their appointment. She is irritated that he hasn’t done his research.
Their conversation is antagonistic. He is unimpressed by her claims of millions of followers. His rhetorical question, “How does it feel to feed the brain rot of America?” is met with no answer. He makes the situation worse and we laugh uproariously when he says he has seen one of her films, when he was staying in a hotel in Kiev and the television remote was broken! She asks if he has any daughters and his reply is heartbreaking.
They make a deal to trade confessions that no-one else knows. This play has two very fine performances, the anger of a sidelined journalist and the vacuity of his interviewee with hidden manipulation. They are not people you can value which is their tragedy. The video projections are like a third character with news feed, them filming themselves and text messages sometimes hard to read against the bricks and glass and often distorting their faces with interference from the backdrop. Derek McLane’s set is beautiful filling the width of the stage and Jackie Shemesh’s lighting is dramatic.
I was so pleased to see Robert Sean Leonard on the London stage again, after seeing him as Atticus Finch in Mockingbird at Regent’s Park, and of course on television as Hugh Laurie’s colleague in House MD. I hope he can be persuaded to grace the London stage again soon.
Production Notes
Interview
Written by Theodor Holman and film maker Theo Van Gogh
Adapted and Directed by Teunkie Van Der Sluijs
Cast
Starring:
Robert Sean Leonard
Paten Hughes
Creatives
Director: Teunkie Van Der Sluijs
Composer: Ata Güner
Set Designer: Derek McLane
Costume Designer: Bernat Buscato
Information
Running Time: 90 minutes without an interval
Booking to 27th September 2025
Theatre:
Riverside Studios
Website: riversidestudios.co.uk
Rail/Tube: Hammersmith
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
at the Riverside Studios
on 28th August 2025