Review: The Hunger Games: On Stage at Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre ★★½
Although impressive in scale, this paint-by-numbers stage adaptation of The Hunger Games fails to rise above the status of cosplaying tribute.
★★½ The Hunger Games: On Stage | Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre | Booking to October 2026
It was always going to happen, wasn’t it – there was no-way that the mega-successful Hunger Games franchise wouldn’t make the transfer to the stage, following in the footsteps of Billy Eliot, The Lion King, Kinky Boots, The Producers, The Bodyguard, Legally Blonde and so many more. And while some of those have been long-running, blockbuster successes in the West End, on Broadway, or even both, there have been so many more damp squibs and disappointments. At best, screen-to-stage adaptations breathe fresh life and new perspectives into a known quantity. At worst, they feel like pale imitations designed to squeeze every last possible dollar out of an IP.
Often, what sets apart the triumphs from the disasters is the affordance of a creative freedom to reimagine and reinterpret the source material, lending new depth or breadth to a tried and tested story. Notably, however, Conor McPherson’s adaptation of The Hunger Games, directed by Matthew Dunster (‘2:22 – A Ghost Story’) is billed as being adapted from the Lionsgate-produced film as well as Suzanne Collins’ first book of the bestselling series, and the arrangement with Lionsgate would seem to have precluded any lateral thinking.
Be prepared, then, for a beat-for-beat retelling of the Gary Ross-helmed 2012 film – essentially all of the production design decisions made by Ross and his team, and further developed across Francis Lawrence’s subsequent sequels and prequels, are faithfully replicated here. The musical cues are taken from the movies, as are the design choices and even the characterisations – Stavros Demetraki, Tamsin Carroll and Joshua Lacey are in-effect delivering impersonations of Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson as Caesar Flickerman, Effie Trinket and Haymitch Abernathy respectively.
The two leads, Mia Carragher as burgeoning rebel Katniss Everdeen and Euan Garrett as loyal co-tribute Peeta Mellark, have a little more room for manoeuvre, but only by way of confirming that the central characters in this story are the least well drawn. And then there is John Malkovich, (almost) literally phoning it in as President Snow by way of pre-recorded video contributions. It’s anyone’s guess who thought the idea of seeing Malkovich deliver monotone, dislocated dialogue to an otherwise live cast would add anything to this production. The effect is jarring, undoing any good work which has drawn the audience into the story of girl and boy sent into a fight to the death in the name of entertainment and subjugation.
And there is some good work here. The sheer size of the staging, and use of the newly built Troubadour Theatre space, is impressive – and a handful of scenes work really well, including the pre-games training room and the creative rendering of a tree-top siege. But the relatively small company often feels dwarfed by the venue, and the lighting and sound can’t fill the space. Clearly the intention is to make the audience feel akin to spectators at the colosseum – essentially Panem citizens watching the Hunger Games and their support shows live on TV, the stage in place of a widescreen television. But attempts to shift into immersive mode fall flat, and somehow the effect is to take a surprisingly intimate viewing experience and leave one feeling the cold detachment of neutral observer.
It’s fixable, or at least improvable. The device whereby Katniss narrates her own thoughts and feelings could be dropped with a re-write that, perhaps, incorporates an in-person portrayal of President Snow as a lurking omnipresence. A nightly opportunity for aspiring local actors could bulk out the otherwise bizarrely under-populated reaping scene. The sound-system could be supercharged, audience interaction during relevant scenes could be primed in advance, and a few simple costume variations could make identifying the Hunger Games combatants much easier. Dance interjections add little, whilst the couple of musical interludes feel like leftovers from an abandoned concept – both could be dropped without cost to a production which is already reproducing (with few omissions) a 142 minute film!
For a shining example of how a franchise can make a successful transfer to the stage, all involved should look no further than Stranger Things – The First Shadow -evidence that a near-exhausted IP can be refreshed if you take an inventive rather than slavish approach to the source material.
Fans of the books and the films may lap this up – but there’s very little new to be found in The Hunger Games: On Stage, and some top-class imaginations have been wasted in pursuit of a nightly facsimile of the film.
All Photos by Johan Persson ®, ™ & © 2025 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc.
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