The Shawshank Redemption is a play about toxic masculinity. So far, so zeitgeist. But it is also a play about the best of manhood: friendship, loyalty, resilience and hope.
It is a story that much of its audience will already know, if not from the original Stephen King novella on which it is based then from the iconic 1994 film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. As such, it could have been a thankless task both to adapt for the stage and, in the wrong hands, watch. With the security blankets of film-making stripped away – no editing or clever cinematography here – we are left with a simple but atmospheric prison set and at the mercy of two things: story and performance. Happily, neither disappoint.
For those who don’t already know the plot, the action focuses almost entirely on the fictional Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where banker Andy Dufresne (former Holby City actor and Strictly winner Joe McFadden) has been sentenced to life for murdering his wife and her lover, a crime he is adamant he did not commit. Here, he must try to preserve his humanity in the face of brutality meted out by staff and fellow inmates alike, while forging bonds with fellow prisoners Red (Ben Onwukwe), the prison’s ‘Mr Get Things’, and Brooksie, the inmate-librarian (Kenneth Jay).
Image courtesy of Liverpool Playhouse
The theatrical adaptation by Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns gives no hint of the plot’s conclusion, and this lack of a clear narrative direction adds to a sense of disorientation in the second act, particularly as Dufresne grapples with a reality in which the very power structures and authority figures that are supposed to protect are themselves corrupted. McFadden portrays Dufresne as intelligent, resourceful and humane; vulnerable and yet refusing to be a victim. There is fire in his eyes at times, tears at others. And while elements of the second half get a little shouty at times – perhaps inevitable when there is a theatre to fill rather than a claustrophobic movie close-up – he brings nuance to what could have been in the wrong hands a clichéd part.
Indeed, the entire all-male cast deliver strong performances and, the occasional wobble notwithstanding, credible American accents. Onwukwe is charismatic as our narrator and Jay completely steals his scenes as the arthritic Brooksie, pushing his beloved book trolley around the wing and grappling with the prospect of life without a library on the outside. It is a rare and welcome thing to have a truly inter-generational cast in which the older members play rounded characters with their own histories rather than merely the relatives of the central protagonists, and that opportunity is not wasted by those on stage. Shawshank is a good story, well told. The simplest thing, and yet no mean feat.
Main image courtesy of Liverpool Playhouse
The Shawshank Redemption is at the Playhouse, Liverpool until April 4, 2026, and on tour. For more information, click here.
