'Dear Liar' Jermyn Street Theatre

Theatre history comes to life in the heart of the west-end.

First staged in 1957, Dear Liar takes nearly forty years of correspondence between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Campbell and turns it into a theatrical tightrope act: two voices, a great deal of language, and the constant question of how to make letters behave like living drama. At its best, the play reveals not just affection and antagonism, but the sheer pleasure both figures took in verbal sparring - and any revival lives or dies by how fully that sense of play is realised.

This production at Jermyn Street Theatre approaches the text with care, and there is much to admire in its restraint. Rachel Pickup is consistently charismatic as Mrs Pat, finding music in the writing while allowing flashes of vulnerability to cut through the bravura personality of the great actress. Alan Turkington’s Shaw takes a little longer to warm up; early on there is a sense of caution in the delivery, but as the evening progresses the performance deepens and Turkington's Shaw has an engaging, thoughtful ease. His conflicting emotions about war and relationships are particularly effective.

The production is at its most successful when the two performers come together to recreate the rehearsals of Pygmalion. Here, the relationship becomes tactile and mischievous, the language landing as provocation rather than quotation. These passages generate the lustiest laughs of the evening and the two actors offer a real glimpse of the pleasure Shaw and Campbell found in one another.

While Stella Powell-Jones' direction is strong and clear-sighted, I did occasionally feel the space itself was underused. The staging often allows the text to dominate rather than letting the room participate in the argument, and given how much of the play hinges on distance, absence and infatuation, there were moments when a bolder spatial vocabulary might have sharpened those themes. That said, the overall shape is well judged, and the pacing allows the relationship to unfold without strain.

Design elements from Tom Paris are quietly effective: the set frames the action without fuss, while Harry Blake's soundtrack, replete with typewriter sound effects, is precise; supporting the epistolary style rather than underlining it. 

This Dear Liar may not entirely escape the inherent limitations of its form, but when it leans into playfulness and trusts the actors to spar rather than simply speak, it offers genuine theatrical pleasure - a reminder that these letters and their authors, still have the capacity to amuse, provoke and sting.

Tucked beneath Piccadilly, Jermyn Street Theatre offers a welcome escape on a cold February night - where the warmth of this unconventional relationship offsets the chill, and a slice of theatre history comes to life in the heart of the West End.

Dear Liar runs until 7th March 2026.

Jonas Cemm

Jonas Cemm FRSA is a Theatre Director and Writer. He is the Artistic Director of Shaw2020 Theatre Company and a former Shaw Society Trustee. He has been involved in over twenty-five Shavian Productions.