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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Arifa Akbar

The Guilty review – Russell Tovey is commanding in cop thriller that fills you with dread

Russell Tovey holds a phone to his ear, lit dramatically against a dark background in The Guilty at Donmar Warehouse, London.
Taking too much of the case into his own hands … Russell Tovey in The Guilty at Donmar Warehouse, London. Photograph: Helen Murray

The Donmar has had mixed results adapting leftfield films such as Force Majeure and The Fear of 13. But this production, based on the 2018 Danish movie Den Skyldige (by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen), is a fantastically theatrical experience, part crime thriller and part ghost story.

At 70 minutes, it is shorter than the film but arguably more devastating, with the kind of razor suspense that fills you with dread and leaves you palpitating. As a critic who takes copious notes, I emerged at the end of the show with a near empty notebook as I was too absorbed to look away.

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