I'll Be Back | Old Joint Stock Theatre

Judgment Day, 1997. Humanity is destroyed by Skynet, an AI weapons system which becomes self-aware and launches a nuclear apocalypse which kills three billion people. A decades-long war against the machines ensues as humanity fights for its survival.

Justine Malone brings her one-woman parody of The Terminator to the Old Joint Stock, telling the story of a disillusioned and begrudging humanity-museum tour guide, sent back in time to prevent her former grief-stricken self from causing the death of billions of people worldwide and creating a technological uprising. With a nostalgic 90’s soundtrack and atmosphere, we are transported into science fiction for a throwback hour of comedy.

Malone (also known professionally as ‘Malone Wolf’) heads the show as the full cast and creative team behind everything, stepping into multiple roles seamlessly and showing quite impressive distinction throughout between a wide variety of characters with physical clarity and taking advantage of moments for comedic effect in the changes. Although having much potential as a comedic actor and having a good understanding of the show she has crafted, Malone may have benefitted from smoothing out some minor hitches in the performance caused by lack of confidence in the material - something that may well improve as the show's run continues.

In terms of content, the show follows a somewhat standard sci-fi plot - angsty protagonist from a dystopian future is sent back in time to save humanity and prevent their timeline, healing their personal grievances along the way. The issue lies not in the content of the plot but in parts of the show where the pace grinds almost to a halt, predominantly when getting lost in its own meta-narrative.

What could be imagined to be character exposition neatly wrapped up in a short montage scene in a cinematic setting unfortunately does not translate as perhaps intended to the retelling of the protagonist's gripe with her lost brother, despite giving Malone a chance to demonstrate aforementioned skill in quickfire capturing of multiple characters the story stretches for long enough to feel stuck and occasionally directionless, before coming back to the main plot with not much understanding of when some details will become relevant, apart from an indulgent march into nostalgia for Malone and any mature audience.

Unfortunately adding to the feeling of getting lost in itself at some times, there were moments in the show that may have lost audience members unfamiliar with the original content it was based on, as many references and contextual points go unexplained, regardless of how relevant to the plot they may be. For example, there was a struggle to grasp the stakes for the protagonist at the beginning when we are introduced to the technological uprising, as without the prior knowledge of what threat the robots hold to humanity there is not an opportunity to see the reality of what kind of danger they are in other than cyber-monitoring. This lack of clarification around source material and adaptation also blurred the lines between original plot and parody that caused confusion without knowledge of the source, causing the show to lose appeal to many audiences.

However, the show did breathe a new gust of life into itself in the second leg, after establishing the tone and moving past exposition the pace picks up substantially and although there are moments where the reliance on one actor to carry the energy of the piece causes it to fall short of exhilarating, there is more excitement in this part of the show that the first leg could benefit from being balanced with. This may also help clarify the tone of the piece quickly, as there was sometimes some confusion about what the expected reaction from the audience was, especially as a viewer with no prior context of the piece.

This is not to say the show is entirely flawed - alongside the more upbeat second half, the show has many stand out comedic moments and relatable, generation-crossing references that land naturally with satisfying pay-off. Also to be praised is the use of projection in the show to hallmark location and era throughout the show, providing information easily that grounds us in the scene without the need for awkward exposition. The projection is also satisfyingly taken advantage of for gags, and to show a little more of the protagonist's inner world than may otherwise be possible to do.

Overall, I’ll Be Back has a few exciting moments but is generally underwhelming, with inconsistent quality of content and performance. With the best moments of the show still being engaging to watch despite this, the show has potential with more time spent finessing the details and fine-tuning performance and providing more clarity throughout the show.

I'll Be Back is continuing to tour sporadically in the UK until April 2026.

★★☆☆☆ (2*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Simon Vail