Last Updated on February 28, 2026
An unrelenting road trip through family dysfunction
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
‘My name is Winston Smith and only good things happen to me’ incants the protagonist of Fatherland. It’s a prophecy, a mantra and a delusion – the meanings of which fuel a father-daughter drama that resists easy reconciliations.
Road journeys are hard to accomplish in theatre. Chloé Zhao’s 2020 award-winning (and similarly named) film Nomadland is propelled by the shifting locations through which its heroin drifts. These are the luxuries of a portable camera. Yet Nancy Farino – graduate of Hampstead Theatre’s Inspire Writers Programme – attempts this genre on stage.
There is movement from the start. Jason Thorpe (The Witcher, The Banishing) is instantly lovable as Winston Smith, who arrives unannounced at his daughter Joy’s flat. He is a chaotic, grey-haired dad, full of quick wit and risky jokes (the audience laughs constantly). Joy – played by writer Farino herself (Anatomy of a Scandal, Masters of the Air) – is perturbed by her father’s appearance. She’s a soft-spoken, formidable presence, wise to his erratic nature but without capacity to refuse him.
The drama is propelled by a scheme of Winston’s. He’s converted a school bus into a camper van (affectionally named Buster) and convinces Joy to accompany him on a search for their lost Irish family in County Mayo. For him, this is a father-daughter bonding exercise; for her, it’s another submission to an unhinged parent. This is seemingly familiar theatrical groundwork: two characters cast to the road, at odds with each other, in need of the catharsis that travel might bring.
Fatherland is elevated by Thorpe’s pitch-perfect portrayal of a desperate man with a cuddly shell. He moves from slapstick comedy to wailing tragedy, blending blustery dad with calculated manipulator. The contradictions of his character, laid bare by the calibre of his performance, sustain the play throughout. Farino’s script is super-sensitive to awkwardnesses between an ageing father and a young-adult daughter. Winston is desperate for Joy to ‘open up’; Joy is reluctant, phased by his intrusions.
The drama is never predictable. Turmoil in the characters’ private lives – divulged mainly to the audience – enters Fatherland through flashbacks and dreams, thickening the air in the bus. The backdrop to the trip is Winston’s legal trouble – events he withholds from Joy throughout. Something has gone terribly wrong for one of Winston’s clients (he’s a life coach), whose wealthy family are suing for negligence. Director Tessa Walker (Ravenscourt, Biscuits for Breakfast) achieves seamless cuts between the vehicle and the clinical interior of a law firm. Claire, a strong-willed lawyer convincingly played by Shona Babayemi (Polite Society, Twelfth Night from Shakespeare’s Globe), grills Winston on his case, who flounders under her cut-throat realism. He struggles to face the gravity of his situation, diverting conversations, avoiding ‘extreme’ words, softening Babayemi’s seriousness. Spectres of this conflict haunt Winston as he clutches the wheel. Meanwhile, in the passenger seat, Joy reels from a damaging relationship, repeatedly lapsing into dreams. She imagines herself as a parasitic monster, a lab rat, a corrupt person. These visions recall moments from her real life, too – depressive episodes in bed, injustices by ex-partners.
Fatherland’s major triumph is never diluting characters’ flaws for the sake of narrative resolution. It brings the dense histories of its leads to the fore without forcing them to confide in each other. It’s not about bending to neat conclusions. Instead, forms of affection – and great humour – grow despite emotional violence.
Farino offers a strikingly honest vision of a fractured family. When Joy tells Winston that she’s continuing the trip to County Mayo alone, there’s a flash of intimacy that sticks in the throat. Through the noise, love reigns for a moment.
Fatherland runs at Hampstead Theatre from 31st October to 29th November.
Hampstead Theatre
Eton Ave
London
NW3 3EU
Looking for something different? We also recommend Kindling, currently showing at Park Theatre
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