Frozen review
The Loft Theatre Company, Leamington Spa, 4 April 2026 I recently watched a repeat of a 1980 episode of TV series Tales of the Unexpected called The Flypaper , a chilling tale of a young girl who is abducted on the way home to her grandmother. It lingers long in the memory afterwards. Dave Crossfield’s new production of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen at the Loft does pretty much the same. Coincidentally, the main plot of Frozen also begins in 1980 and also features a young girl on her way home to her grandmother, 10-year-old Rhona Shirley, who is sexually abused and killed by serial killer Ralph Wantage (James Proctor). Her mother, Nancy (Cheryl Laverick), is paralysed by hope, grief and anger over the course of some 20 years. Meanwhile, American criminology professor Agnetha Gottmundsdottir (Tracey James) is using the incarcerated Ralph as a case study on why people like him do what they do – are his crimes a symptom or a sin? The play starts monologue-heavy, progressing to dialogue as Agn...