PATRICK MARMION: I'm vetoing my own star-rating system because I can't recommend you watch this production full of blood-soaked sex and depravity

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 17:59 EDT, 30 July 2026 | Updated: 18:01 EDT, 30 July 2026 Cleansed (Almeida, London)Verdict: Bleak and brutalNo rating given Never mind that we're being assailed by climate change; London's Almeida Theatre is offering some suffering of its own this summer, with its revival of Sarah Kane's notorious 1998 play, Cleansed.It's the theatrical equivalent of a poke in the eye with a sharp stick – and starts with just that: a syringe jabbed into the eyeball of an apparent junkie, by a sadistic physician. Yes, torture and depravity is the order of the day in a vision of psychotic disintegration, as the junkie's twin sister enters this underworld in search of her dead brother.The trigger warnings for this show are exhaustive, but still barely prepare you for the brutality, which includes a sexual assault with a broom handle. Cleansed often feels relentless and random; and yet if you're willing to go with the infernal flow, it's also a desperate, gruesome search for love and redemption.It must be hell for the cast, stripping off to simulate blood-soaked sex and mental collapse night after night in Rebecca Frecknall's grimly uncompromising production. Cleansed often feels relentless and random; and yet if you're willing to go with the infernal flow, it's also a desperate, gruesome search for love and redemption. A scene from the play at Almeida Theatre is seen hereLeo Bill has a particularly nasty task as the doctor in charge of brutality, on a set that looks like a hospital corridor and treatment room, lit so everybody looks ill.We should therefore wish these brave actors well, including Pearl Chanda and Jack Riddiford as the psychotic siblings, and Luke Cinque-White and Parth Thakerar as a persecuted gay couple.I'm not awarding any stars, as I can't honestly justify recommending it to anyone as a good night out – although for a long time I agonised over whether to give it four stars (bear with me) on the strength of the acting.PS: It's worth noting that author Kane tragically killed herself – in a hospital – the year after writing this.The Importance Of Being Oscar (Park Theatre, London)Verdict: Wilde at heartRating: Four out of five stars For lighter relief, head further north – to Finsbury Park – for The Importance Of Being Oscar.You may think there's little left to say about Oscar Wilde; and nothing he didn't say better himself ('to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance').But Alastair Whatley proves there's room for giving the great writer a life on stage, to tell his own story. His one-man show is a remarkable revival of a 1960 tribute to Wilde that was written and performed by Micheál Mac Liammóir, which presents Wilde as a living, breathing Victorian gent.We get a fascinating vision of Oscar that weaves together everything from his lush early poems to passing quips, and passages from plays (including the handbag scene from The Importance Of Being Earnest), before descending into the gloom of De Profundis (From The Depths) and Ballad Of Reading Gaol, after he was convicted of gross indecency. Alastair Whatley is seen here in The Importance of Being Oscar. His performance and Michael Fentiman's production are a subtle fusion of the antique and modernWhatley's performance and Michael Fentiman's production are a subtle fusion of the antique and modern.Wearing an 'amber–brown' three–piece corduroy suit and matching cravat, Oscar is framed by two large hoops of light, suggesting dressing room mirrors, or portals to another dimension. Whatley's rapt and moving performance lends a depth and complexity to Wilde that is often lost in the supine hero worship of others.Cleansed runs at the Almeida until August 29; The Importance Of Being Oscar is on until August 22.