one4review | On 26, Aug 2026

The creators of this show clearly possess heavy souls, and they have produced a thoughtful, challenging and deeply uncomfortable experience that will undoubtedly stay with many viewers long after they leave the theatre. This is not an easy piece of Fringe theatre, nor is it intended to be. It asks the audience to spend an hour inside the mind of a deeply disturbed man and, remarkably, manages to make that experience compelling without ever making his actions comfortable to witness.
The story is told from the first-person perspective of an aging white man who adopted a child in infancy and, until the boy’s 16th birthday, the day on which the show is set, has kept him imprisoned in a literal wooden box. From there, the narrative centres on his increasingly elaborate attempts to justify what he has done, gradually revealing a much darker explanation for why releasing the boy would, in his mind, be a catastrophic mistake.
The boy, however, simply wants to be free.
That simple desire provides an effective counterpoint to the narrator’s increasingly disturbing reasoning. As the story unfolds, the audience is drawn further into his warped worldview, and there is something particularly unsettling about finding yourself listening so intently to a character whose actions are so abhorrent. The production doesn’t ask us to agree with him, but it does force us to understand how he has constructed a world in which he believes himself to be justified.
The audiovisual elements add considerably to the experience. The video link showing the basement and the box, combined with what appears to be motion-capture technology, provides a compelling accompaniment to the live monologue. Rather than simply illustrating what is being said, these elements help build the claustrophobic atmosphere and give the story another unsettling dimension.
There are also some deliberately uncomfortable racial undertones. The child appears not to be white, and the narrator’s reasoning brings in references to an extraordinary litany of historical atrocities, including the genocide of Native Americans, the Holocaust and Hitler. These references are harrowing, and the way they are deployed makes for difficult viewing. Yet this discomfort seems very much to be part of the point. The audience is being forced to sit with an unreliable and morally repugnant perspective and consider how someone might use history, fear and ideology to rationalise the indefensible.
It is a difficult piece to categorise, and I suspect it will divide audiences quite sharply. I can easily imagine some people considering it a stroke of genius, while others may simply find themselves unable to connect with its particular style or subject matter. Personally, I found myself fascinated by it, even while recognising that it is not something I would necessarily seek out again.
I generally reserve five-star ratings for shows I would happily watch over and over again. The Boy in the Box doesn’t quite reach that category for me. I’m glad I saw it, though, and I think it is a solid Fringe production that deserves to find the audience willing to engage with what it is attempting to do.
It is harrowing, strange and psychologically challenging, but there is clearly considerable thought behind the production. Most importantly, it left me thinking about the character and his warped justification long after the curtain fell.
I wouldn’t watch it a second time, but I will certainly keep an eye out for the future work of this team. I’m very interested to see what they choose to tackle next.
****
Reviewed by Mike
13,40 to 14.40
The Penny, Gilded Balloon Pater House
Until August 30th