Simon Ward reviews Rowling In It at the King’s Head Theatre

Written and performed by Laura Kay Bailey, and directed by Dominic Shaw, Rowling In It is a fictionalised account of what she experienced when she agreed to play the part of JK Rowling in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024. This piece opens with an amusing legal disclaimer delivered in a Deep South accent to make sure we know it is a work of fiction.

Although Bailey is an adept and versatile performer, this is a strange hybrid of a show, in which the individual elements never quite come together in the way one might hope. For example, as the audience are taking their seats there is a mock WhatsApp group chat of Year 1 parents being projected onto the backcloth. This is hilarious – a pitch-perfect send-up of sanctimonious, judgmental parenting, not to mention the nightmare of trying to keep a group chat on topic. There is a callback to this right at the end, as well, so don’t miss. But it sits oddly with the rest of the piece. I suppose it is a kind of backdrop – this is what Bailey’s life was taken up with before signing up, unaware of the controversy swirling round Rowling because her head was too full of lost socks and Peppa Pig. Nevertheless, I would have enjoyed the chance to see it develop further. Another under-explored theme is Bailey’s own relationship – her partner’s ringtone is Darth Vader’s Imperial March and, when she can bear to speak to him they hardly communicate. This is funny, but it is not clear where it sits in the play. Likewise, the children to whom she has devoted ten years are not mentioned. Surely she hasn’t left them in Darth Vader’s care? It would seem not, as he is working in Luxembourg (or another country beginning with L).

Bailey’s reckless desire to jump at the chance to take a starring role is driven by necessity – such roles barely exist. But she has no idea what she is letting herself in for. The chaos of the ensuing months as the opening night looms is rendered in a series of ever more insane vignettes. The travails of getting anything on stage are not exactly unknown, but the combination of endless re-writes and the personal struggles of all of her co-stars make for a particularly intense process. Add in the political sensitivities of stepping into the gender identity minefield and it is almost certainly a recipe for disaster. Bailey is wryly funny about all of this, adopting multiple accents and attitudes. But the big reveal of the awfulness of the Edinburgh show is missing. There is a bit of comedy with spotlights in the wrong place, but we never quite see how terrible it may have been. Without this it felt a little hollow, and almost incomplete. Although replete with very funny moments, for me it never quite coalesced into a fully satisfying whole.

Rowling In It is running at the King’s Head Theatre, 116P Upper St, London N1 1QP until Saturday 18th April