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Review Hunger games on stage london

In November 2025 I watched the new theatre production of the hunger games in London in the Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre.

Here is my opinion on the play, the actors and the location if anyone is interested. I am aware that my opinion is of course very subjective and other people of course have a right to have a different opinion and experience.

Note: I did not read the book series before watching the play and only watched the movies, but did read all of the books afterwards (except tbosbas).

Also note: I saw a performances after the official premiere, so not a preview performance. I don’t really know what was different in the previews and can only judge the final finished product.

Also note: I‘m not a native English speaker and did not write anything in English for quite some time. Please forgive me for spelling or grammatical mistakes and if this is really badly written. Sometimes it’s difficult to express my thoughts in another language.

Overall opinion

First of all: I really loved this play, I had a great time watching it and I am already planning to see it again. I wasn’t really that invested in the franchise but I must admit this play got me quite obsessed with everything hunger games and made me interested in reading the books. I don’t really agree with all the negative reviews i have seen online

(The things I heard about the accessibility problems excluded here of course, that is definetly something that must be changed).

I think it was a well done interpretation of the first book. Not perfect of course, but really good.

The venue

I thought the theatre was nice and for a london theatre quite big and spacious. It wasn’t super fancy or anything but I wasn’t bothered by it. It reminded me a lot of a theatre we would have here in Germany not a traditional London one.

The stage itself and the auditorium were absolutely stunning. I loved how the different sections were divided by districts. That was a fun touch. I had a very good view from my seats. The only problem I had with the round stage: there a naturally scenes where I couldn’t see an actors face in some scenes as they were turned away from me. That did bother me a little bit.

I did wonder how they would bring props on stage as it’s a round stage, but they had this really big sort of platform (and additionally smaller platforms) where props and actors could be raised up on stage from below the stage. I though it was really cool. Additionally the seating blocks of district 1 and 2 could move and open up the space to make the stage bigger and allow characters or props to enter the stage for example the chariot.

The staircases in the auditorium were also used for actors entrances which was so cool. I love when plays or musicals use part of the auditorium, it makes the experience so much more immersive.

There were two big screens at both ends of the stage which were used quite frequently. I am usually not the biggest fan of screens in life theatre but didn’t mind the use of them too much overall. Except for president snow which I will go in detail about later…

The plot

Overall I think the play followed the plot quite well although they of course had to cut some things, which is normal when adapting a book into another medium. I mean no one wants to sit in the theatre for 10 hours.

Act one starts with Katniss in district 12 on the day of the reaping. We see the reaping and her and peeta’s journey to the capitol.

We see the carriage ride, a training session, the interviews and act one ends shorty before katniss is going to enter the arena.

Haymitch, Effie and Cinna also make an appearance of course. We get to know the other tributes.

Act two covers the games themselves starting with the bloodbath, Katniss hiding and being drawn back by the game makers by a fire. The other tributes finding her, Rue rescues her by showing her the tracker jacker nest. Katniss fleeing, Peeta‘s leg getting injured. Rue and Katniss team up, she blows up the supplies of the careers. The new winner rule is announced, Katniss finds Peeta and gets the medicine for his leg. The final showdown happens at the cornucopia with the mutts and Cato and Katniss and Peeta win because of the berry trick.

At the end of the play we see the winner ceremony and Katniss and Peeta returning to district 12.

The biggest differences are more in details they changed to save time or had to cut entirely. Magde is cut entirely, the avox girl Katniss remembers is cut, the interviews and the gamemaker scores are combined, a lot of the arena parts where Katniss is on her own are cut down. Everything went a bit quicker than in the book especially in act two.

Overall the main plot points were there, the main message was there in my opinion although some details were lost.

Distinctiveness of the play production

As for every adaptation there were specific choices made for this production that made it different from the book and/or movie.

The first thing I noticed was that in contrast to the movie they kept Katniss internal monologue by having the actress telling Katnisses thoughts directly to the audience. I thought that was a very bold and brave choice. When I heard about it before seeing the play I was a bit worried it would not work, but i thought in this specific play it worked well. Theatre is a more artistic medium where the audiences has to suspend their disbelieve way more than in a movie (movies overall are more „realistic“) and it added to the whole atmosphere of the play.

There was also a lot of choreographed „movement“/dancing, which is not unusual for live theatre. Especially in the scenes in district 12 at the beginning the music and the movement of the ensemble really helped setting the mood.

There was more explicit dance and singing performances throughout the play. For example there was a sort of night club performance when Katniss and Peeta arrive in the capitol. In my opinion it was a very nice and entertaining way to highlight the difference between the capitol people and the district people. Katniss and Peeta seemed so out of place which I think was the point of it. Also i really liked the song.

There were two scenes where i was a bit confused by the choreography/song choice. First in the scene of the bloodbath. I don’t know why it bothered me, but the choreography seemed a bit out of place to me. The fighting was interrupted several times by a collective „dance“/repetitive movement that seemed a bit silly to me. I guess I just didn’t like the choreography used in this specific scene.

The other was the careers and Peeta dancing und singing the panem anthem when threatening Katniss in the tree. I think the song and the dance seemed a bit out of place, but the choreography was cool so I didn’t mind it too much. I think it was probably supposed to show that Peeta isn’t really one of them as he joins the dance later than the rest, but I’m not completely sure. At least it gave us dancing Peeta, which I did enjoy.

I feel like another rather controversial choice was how they adapted Rue‘s death scene. When Rue is dying the scene with her and Katniss gets interrupted by a capitol ensemble dance number where the capitol citizens are at a sort of party and having a really good time. The contrast by putting these two scenes together was so shockingly bold that I personally think it worked. I know some people probably prefer the more emotional and quietly atmospheric version from the movie (I love that version too), but for me the play version with the added contrast was more gut wrenching. Less sad but more brutal and i really felt the cruelness and the unfairness of the games. I do get why people might have been confused by the scene as it felt so different from the book and the movie version. I think it is up to taste if you would like this artistic choice or not.

One thing I also liked were the Mutts at the end of the games. In the book it was stated that each Mutt represented one of the dead tributes (Katniss notices similarities in eye and fur colour). In the play the actors of the dead tributes play the mutts which makes this connection very clear. In a scene before the big end fight we see the dead tributes behaving more and more like animals and so turning slowly metaphorically into the Mutts. It was such an atmospheric scene, in my opinion it was very well done and genuinely creepy and unsettling.

Special effects

The play had many really amazing special effects and choreographed fight/action sequences. I loved that they actually used a real bow and arrow on stage, it made it so much more realistic. The scene where Katniss shoots the apple in her private session with the gamemakers was also brilliantly done with a little bit of stage magic.

I also loved the use of real fire on the chariot and in the fire scene in the actual games.

In my opinion they made the show spectacular enough to be entertaining but it wasn’t just a big spectacle with one special effects after another. I think it had a good mix between spectacular and meaningful.

The costumes

Overall I liked the costumes although I thought some could have been done better. I loved all the costumes in district 12, they were really fitting.

The capitol outfits were interesting for the lack of a better word. Most of them in my opinion quite ugly but I do think that was sort of the point (as Katniss described the capitol people as ugly if I remember correctly). I did love Effie‘s outfit though. It’s just sad she didn’t have more of a variety of outfits, some more costume changes for Effie would have been nice. Cinna also looked stunning i must say.

I also loved the chariot ride outfit for Katniss and Peeta. They understandably didn’t actually set they’re actors on fire but the jackets produced smoke that made it seem like there was fire. I thought it was a clever way to adapt it to the stage without risking to endanger the actors.

I must say I did not like Katnisses interview dress. In the book it was described as being so beautiful but I think it didn’t look right on Mia and didn’t flatter her at all. They also could have done something to her hair in this scene so she would have looked a bit more different from her usual self. I do unterstand that this is hard to do as Katniss is on stage nearly all the time and this particular dress chance happens on stage.

The tribute outfits for the arena were ok, I don’t really have that much of an opinion on them.

The cast

Mia Carragher as Katniss

Mia gave a fantastic performance as Katniss. She had by far the toughest job of the show. She barely leaves the stage and she has so much dialogue and also has to do so many physical things. A show playing Katniss must probably feel like a marathon.

At first I thought her delivering especially of the inner monologue was just a little bit stiff but I must say I really didn’t mind it as much after like 10 minutes getting used to it. Reading the first book after the show I really understood what Mia was trying to do. Katniss always tries to hide her emotions and tries not to feel too much and looking back at Mia‘s performance i think she nailed Katniss. She was still excellent in the emotional scenes, but kept it small and not too over the top. I also thought she captured Katniss awkwardness quite well. I really enjoyed her performance and appreciated it even more after reading the books. I was also very impressive how well she could use an actual bow and arrow live on stage and her singing voice was quite nice, which fits Katniss very well. I thought she had great chemistry with all her co stars especially Gale and Peeta.

The only thing that stops me from really fully judging her: at points of the show I could not 100% judge her face acting because she was turned away from me and I just did not see it. That applies to every actor sadly. But I think I definetly saw enough that I can say she was really good.

I am really interested to go back and try to see the alternate Katniss Kiera just for comparison and for seeing a different interpretation. That would be very interesting to check out. Maybe at some point I will manage to do it.

Euan Garrett as Peeta

I absolutely loved Euan as Peeta. Beside another actor I will get to soon he was my favourite actor of the show. His Peeta was the right amount of nice, sweet but also funny and charming and clever. He felt more like book Peeta to me than his movie counterpart. He felt emotionally stronger and less awkward. In the interview scene he was so charming and really knew how to play the crowd. I loved his delivery of the scene on the night before the games when he tells Katniss that he does not want to be changed by the capitol. His voice was so full of emotion and he just seemed so frustrated (I just wish I could have seen more of his face acting in this scene, damn you round stage). His Peeta is so much in love with Katniss and I thought they were quite sweet together.

There is not much more to say, I just loved his Peeta.

Joshua Lacey as Haymitch

I might be a bit biased here because Haymitch became my favourite character of the franchise but Joshua Lacey for me was beside Euan my favourite actor. He gave such a nuanced and heartbreaking performance as Haymitch. In act two he was not on stage a lot but he really shined in act one. I loved how they included more Haymitch scenes from the books comparing to the movies. He actually was on stage at the reaping and I must say it was quite impressive how Joshua managed to fall of the stage at the reaping so convincingly without actually getting himself hurt. They also kept the darker version of Haymitch being absolutely wasted in his first meeting with Katniss and Peeta on the train (they actually have him vomit on himself, it’s really sad to see). I thought Haymitch felt way more drunk and troubled than his movie counterpart, which I think is more book accurate.

His Haymitch was less funny than movie Haymitch (don’t get me wrong sarcastic movie Haymitch is still iconic) but he managed to give Haymitch this more tragically sad, darker and rougher personality that I saw in the books. I think he got across so well that Haymitch really tries not to care and tries not to show that he cares, but deep down he really really cares about both Katniss and Peeta. The way his Haymitch looked at them when leaving them for the last time on the night before the games absolutely killed me.

I also loved the little connection to Sunrise of the reaping, when Effie leaves Haymitch with Katniss and Peeta she wishes him a happy birthday. I thought that was such a nice touch to include now that SOTR is out.

Tristan Waterson as Gale

Tristan did a fantastic job playing Gale, I think he had good chemistry with Mia and overall he is a very good actor. He didn’t have too much to do and was not very present for act two, but he did very well in the scenes he was in. I liked that they gave him some additional scenes in the capitol when Katniss imagined talking to Gale and when she remembers when they first met. It was a nice way to include an actor more who otherwise wouldn’t have had many scenes as Gale is not physically in a big amount of the story. We mostly get information from him when Katniss thinks about him in the book so I thought it was a nice way to combine Katnisses thoughts and give the Gale actor more room to be on stage and develop his character. It made sense from a theatrical point of view. It was a nice way to further their friendship and how important Gale was for Katniss at this time of the story.

I know I saw people online complaining about this scene as it was too much #team Gale, but it personally didn’t bother me. I think in the first book Gale is very important to Katniss and it’s not wrong to show that. It didn’t destroy or minimize her relationship with Peeta in act 2 for me personally.

Tamsin Carroll as Effie

I know I sound repetitive but this cast was so good I have to repeat myself. I loved Tamsins Effie. She perfectly nailed how stuck up Effie can be while still letting the kindness and humanity shine through from time to time. You could feel that like Haymitch she doesn’t really want to show that she cares but she cares really deeply about Katniss and Peeta. Also her delivery of wishing Haymitch a happy birthday was so sad. I wish we could have had more Effie in this play, I wanted to see more of her.

Stavros Dementraki as Caesar

Another brilliant actor I very much enjoyed. I think he chose a bit of a different interpretation from the book in which Katniss mostly describes him as genuinely helping and sort of nice. Stavros really tried to show the darker side of Caesar. His Caesar was a lot more mean and you could tell the only thing he cares about is making a good show for the cameras. They included a scene in act two where he interviews the Everdeens in their home during the games. He looks very disgusted by everything in district 12 throughout the entire scene and seems quite condescending.

This wasn’t the most book accurate Caesar but definetly fun to watch.

Sophia Ally as Prim

Although she didn’t have a very big role Sophia gave an impressive performance as Prim. In the reaping scene she brought me to tears. Her emotional acting was really good and she incorporated the innocence of Prim perfectly.

Nathan Ives-Moiba as Cinna

Sadly Cinna didn’t have that big of a role in the play, but like the rest of the cast i thought Nathan did a really good job. His Cinna was a bit more serious and less warm than movie Cinna, but he had a great air of authority and elegance around him. I really liked that. Some scenes could have been delivered a little bit softer though in my opinion.

The tributes

The entire ensemble of tributes were amazingly casted. Especially the district 1 and 2 tributes were absolutely amazing at stunt fighting. All the action looked so real. Standouts among the tributes for me were Aiya Agustin as Rue (she was so sweet), Liana Cottrill as Clove and Felipe Pacheco as Cato. These three gave for me the most memorable performance but all the tributes were really well casted in my opinion.

John Malkovich as President Snow

I really don’t want to get across as mean and I know performances and opinions are subjective, but I really did not enjoy anything about John Malkovich as Snow. He was the only thing that really heavily bothered me throughout the entire play and sadly did make an impact on my enjoyment of the play.

I had two problems with Snow: First every scene from John as Snow was not performed live but was prerecorded and shown on a big screen at the sides of the stage. My second problem was John‘s performance as such.

First of all the entire idea to have president Snow only appear on screen is in my opinion such a bad idea for a live theatre play. I am paying money to see a live performance with actors performing live. If I wanted to see a recorded version of president snow I could just watch the movie to be honest. The fun thing about theatre that sets it apart from the medium of movie or TV is that it’s a live event. That’s the thrill of it. Things can go wrong, actors can change their performance, there could be improvisations. Also you could see a different actor playing the same role next time you go seeing the play again. All of that cannot happen when the performance is prerecorded. It‘s set and won’t change trough the entire run of this play, there will be no changes in his delivery and there will be no other actors in the role. That just makes me sad to be honest. Also having the actual live performers try to act with prerecorded dialogue is guaranteed to go wrong one day and just made every actor sound unnatural. I think in every scene that involved Snow the rest of the cast seemed so much stiffer than before.

If the prerecorded performance was actually good i would still hate the idea but at least would have enjoyed some of it. But I really did not like his performance. Again I don’t want to sound mean ,but I honestly never saw such an bored and stiff performance in any theatre piece i have seen until now. It seemed to me like he was just reading his lines from somewhere in the background without any sort of feeling. I really wonder if they only had time to record one take or if this was really the best take somehow. I really don’t know what happened here. I do think John Malkovich can probably act better than this.

Honestly as someone who is heavily against casting famous actors just for the sake of having famous actors in your play, they would have done so much better by casting a not famous theatre actor who actually could be there every evening. It would have made the performance so much better and would have been so much better for the rest of the cast too. Now we are stuck for the rest of the run with a not changing identical badly performed version of Snow on a screen without any hope of it getting better.

I must confess that makes me quite angry if it wasn’t clear at this point.

Conclusion

Overall I did have an amazing time. I really enjoyed most of the plot and staging decisions and the cast (with an unfortunate exception) was one of the highlights for me. The show really emerges you in the story and the world of the hunger games. Especially by setting atmosphere and not using big set pieces.

I definetly recommend it to people who love the hunger games series but are also open for a new interpretation and maybe a bit familiar with live theatre. It is definetly a very different experience than watching a more realistically shot movie and might not be for everyone. As the ticket prices for live theatre are sadly never cheap i think it would help to know where you stand in regard of theatre shows and theatre acting (which can feel different from movie acting) before investing in a very expensive ticket. Would be a shame to waste the money.

I personally as a now hunger games fan and a big theatre fan will definetly go back and watch it again at some point.