Tedious Two Hander

“He wanted me to say what I wanted in bed . . .  just awful!”

Jennifer

Anastasia Hille as Jennifer and Erin Kellyman as Delilah. (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Two women are trapped together by Covid and if you go you will be forced into their company for 85 minutes. I suspect that if it had been long enough for an interval, there might have been some empty seats for the second half.  Anastasia Hille plays Jennifer, a woman who has wasted her life in living with her difficult mother, a woman who hasn’t experienced love or motherhood.  Her mother’s death might have released her from the duty of care but it couldn’t change her meek, subjugated personality. 

She breaks a leg and a man gets her an ambulance and visits her in hospital. He is called John but we never meet him.  His character is fleshed out by descriptions from the two women.  John marries Jennifer and she finds herself step mother to Delilah (Erin Kellyman) a fiery girl in her late teens.  Delilah lived in Brooklyn with her artist mother who was originally from Jamaica.  We can empathise with Delilah on finding herself with this characterless milksop of a step parent, so far removed from her own mother for whom she is grieving. 

Jennifer repeats, “How did we meet?” about John.  Her answer is a deflection, “People like to ask this.”  Much of the beginning of the play is Jennifer reflecting out loud on not remembering things, where she put things, and regretting the aches and pains of old age.  She is seven years older than John who spends a lot of time abroad.  Delilah explains to Jennifer the concept of FOMO which of course Jennifer doesn’t understand.  It is the kind of heading off potential envy, a fear of missing out which makes you accept every invitation going.  Of course Jennifer doesn’t understand this from her closeted experience of life.

Anastasia Hille as Jennifer and Erin Kellyman as Delilah. (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Delilah, in a sensitive performance from Erin Kellyman, resists Jennifer’s attempts to win her friendship.  I suppose if it’s Covid they can’t go anywhere together like the zoo. Jennifer offers Delilah an unwanted wedding present of a silver tray and suggests that Delilah might take it back to the jewellers and buy something, like a necklace, for herself. Even this offer of a gift feels like a way of Jennifer not having to return the tray herself.  I do wonder who went to Jennifer and John’s wedding?

I suppose the play is well cast, as an actor Anastasia Hille spends much of her time these days making pots but her acting career was always the downtrodden wife, never the fiery mistress; more Mrs Solness than Hedda Gabler.  I saw far more promise for Erin Kelley as Delilah furious when she finds out that Jennifer has been going into her room to read her emails about her progress at university.  Jennifer calls it snooping with distaste but it doesn’t stop her doing it.

Basia Bińkowska’s set is simple, a couple of chairs, lots of shadows and electric light bulbs descending when the ghost of Delilah’s mother is heard.  The circular stage revolves to help the sightlines when the two women stand still and talk together.  Jennifer wears a cardigan over a blouse buttoned up to the neck and tucked in.  I do not think that director Diyan Zora could have done much more to enliven this play given Jennifer’s mealy mouthed speeches. 

Erin Kellyman as Delilah. (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Production Notes

Evening All Afternoon

Written by Anna Ziegler

Directed by Diyan Zora

Cast

Starring:

Anastasia Hille

Erin Kellyman

Creatives

Director:  Diyan Zora

Designer: Basia Bińkowska

Movement: Sara Green

Lighting Designer: Natasha Chivers

Composer and Sound Director: Adam Cork

Information

Running Time: One hour 25 minutes 

Booking to 11th April 2026

Theatre: 

Donmar Warehouse

Earlham Street

Covent Garden

London WC2H 9LX

Tube : Covent Garden

Website: donmarwarehouse.com

Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge

at the Donmar Warehouse

on 25th February 2026