one4review | On 04, Aug 2025

In the small Hill Street venue, a young woman named Alex energetically bursts onto stage, determined for retribution for a collection of cultural misunderstandings of a classic novel. ‘The Lolita Apologies’ is a one-act play in which Alex reckons with various men regarding their adaptations of Nabokov’s famous novel Lolita, adaptations which fail to recognise the middle-aged Humbert Humbert as an unreliable narrator. Instead, they endorse his vision of 12 year old Dolores as a wily seductress, rather than a victim.

 

Alex demands an apology from these men. Men such as Stanley Kubrick and Alan Jay Lerner are interrogated about their failure to recognise the central relationship of Nabokov’s novel as what it actually is: Humbert’s exploitation and abuse of a child. Alex’s quest to receive these apologies is not so straightforward as more questions are then raised. Why do these men have to apologise to her for their representations? Why should the damage of these adaptations matter now, are they not just products of their time which have aged poorly? Ultimately, it’s because this is not just about Lolita. It is a reflection of the often troubling and exploitative dynamics in relationships between men and women which are normalised and accepted.

 

While performed to a small audience, everyone was fully engaged and invested in the story; a testament to both actors who delivered moving and dynamic performances. There was a sense that everyone familiar with the misrepresentations of Nabokov’s novel in media was glad to see a play which truly understood the author’s intentions, along with the unfortunate cultural consequences since its publication.

****

Reviewed by Niamh O’Hara

Muse at Braw Venues @ Hill Street

18.15 1st August – 14th August