Clarkston – Samuel D Hunter – Trafalgar Theatre

Last Updated on September 27, 2025

Solid performances all round in this minimalist, intimate 3-hander play which explores universal themes of acceptance, love, loss, reinvention and hope against the backdrop of small-town America.

Clarkston (named for the small town on the border of Idaho and Washington states where the play is set) is a rare opportunity to see the work of acclaimed writer Samuel D. Hunter (he also wrote The Whale for which he was BAFTA-nominated) on stage in London. The town is named after a pair of explorers, William Clark and Merriweather Lewis, who, between 1804 and 1806, explored the American West by travelling from Iowa to the Pacific Ocean. Their journey and journals are central to the story as we meet Jake (Joe Locke), a liberal arts graduate from Connecticut, stacking shelves at the local Costco store. “It’s a terrible time to be alive”, rails Jake, “there is nothing new left to discover!”. Through his conversations with colleague Chris (Ruaridh Mollica) we learn that what has brought him here is a tenuous family connection to said explorers and a desire to recreate their journey of discovery, see the Pacific Ocean for himself, and achieve something meaningful in his life

The set for Clarkston (by Milla Clarke) and lighting (by Stacey Derosier) design reinforces the unglamorous existence of the characters and the claustrophobic sense that each of them is trapped in their own way by their circumstances. The set consists solely of a bare plywood floor and a bank of shelves like you’d find in a “big box” store like Costco, which gradually fill with boxes as the characters stack them. Glamorous it ain’t. The sense of claustrophobia is further enhanced by having some of the audience seated on stage, further shrinking the area available to the actors. Scene changes from indoors to outdoors are done solely by lighting changes – bright fluorescents to indicate that they are indoors and sulphurous yellow to indicate that they are in the parking lot. It is a study in minimalism, and this lack of showy sets and props really allows the words and the actors to shine – there is nowhere to hide.

At 95 minutes total run time, there is not much time for backstories to reveal themselves slowly in Clarkston, and so both Jake’s and Chris’s are laid before us in the first 15 minutes of the play while they stack the shelves with televisions and giant jars of cheese balls.  At first glance, it seems to be a riff on Pulp’s Common People idea – a dilettante upper class and openly gay kid playing at being working class as he does a cross country trip colliding with the life of somebody who really is working class, still partly closeted, and cannot call on their parents to send money and rescue them from their circumstances. But as the play unfolds, it becomes apparent that both Jake and Chris are trapped and thwarted in their own ways – Jake by a debilitating health condition; Chris by his fractured family life and financial constraints; and both of them by the crushing fear of leading insignificant lives.  Jake thinks he can give his life meaning by following in Lewis and Clark’s footsteps, while Chris thinks he can do so by having his writing published – but Jake’s ambitions have petered out 300 miles short of the Pacific in a dead-end town, and Chris lacks the funds to get into a writing programme. Although the majority of stage time is given over to Jake and Chris, the third character (Chris’s mom, Trisha, played by Sophie Melville) is the one who injects sparks of chaos into the dynamic each time she takes to the stage. A recovering drug addict who has blighted Chris’s life in several ways, she remains desperately needy for his love, and despite her wheedling overtures to him, she turns vindictive in an instant when things do not go her way.  Her drug-fuelled final appearance is beautifully controlled, convincing and impressive. All three British actors also do well to maintain believable and consistent American accents throughout the production, which is not always a given on stage in the West End.

Rather than portraying a Brokeback Mountain style love story, Clarkston instead shows characters who realise early on that their connection is not sexual, leaving the narrative free to explore the theme of platonic male love and acceptance. Some of the most potent scenes between Jake and Chris are the silent moments they share, where the characters realise that there is power in just being there when the other is in distress. There is also a certain irony in the fact that Jake idolises Lewis and Clark’s achievements and has memorised passages from their journals, yet when he reads to Chris from the journals, we are struck by just how banal the day-to-day reality of their expedition was, full of observations of upset tummies and what was for dinner. And of course, although Jake holds up the expedition as being one of pioneering discovery, Chris gently reminds him that all these lands had already been discovered by the native Americans – echoing the earlier sentiment that there really is nothing new left to discover.

Joe Locke (who you may know from the utterly charming Netflix series Heartstopper) is the Big Name in this production of Clarkston and makes an accomplished and engaging West End debut. Sophie Melville is excellent as she runs the gamut from wheedling to enraged.  But I think for me the star of the show is Ruaridh Mollica’s magnetic and nuanced performance as Chris, and I look forward to seeing more of him on stage and screen.

The ending of Clarkston is low-key but upbeat, hinting that despite the reality that most of us lead predominantly insignificant and humdrum lives, sometimes in challenging circumstances, there is hope for each of us to achieve goals and live meaningful lives, even on a micro level.  And although there may indeed be nothing new left to discover in the absolute sense, a personal discovery or first can be no less life-affirming.

Clarkston will be on stage from September 25 to November 22, 2025 – click here to book tickets online.

Clarkston by Samuel D Hunter
TRAFALGAR THEATRE
14 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2DY
Box office tel.: 0333 009 6690

Looking for something different? We also recommend The Weir, currently showing at The Harold Pinter Theatre