If you ever need to find someone, just go to the big Tesco’s bakery section
What would you do if your girlfriend broke up with you and, on that very same day, a wizard turned you into a mouse? And what if the only way to reverse the curse was to sleep with someone who truly loved you? This is exactly the situation Gemma finds herself in; trapped in a mouse’s body 364 days a year, with only one way out, or so she thinks.
Alice Sparrow’s Mouse is an absurdist queer comedy that runs with this premise to its fullest, delivering one clear moral along the way: if you’re ever looking for someone, just try the bakery section of the big Tesco. Beneath the silliness, the play digs into bigger questions about love, what it actually is, who gets to define it, and how much of being “in love” is really a social construct we’ve all agreed to buy into. It’s a genuinely funny, surreal exploration of a sapphic relationship examined only after it’s already ended, and of the ridiculous lengths we’ll go to in order to feel whole. It examines the social construction of love, as well as the way mice perceive humans and vice versa.
The play was written as the opening show for the Hope Theatre’s first-ever North Sapph-Fest, and it’s a fitting one. The festival itself is a new venture from the award-winning Hope Theatre, built around uplifting queer women and non-binary artists, and running throughout August with a rotating lineup of two shows each evening. Mouse set the tone perfectly: bold, funny, and unapologetically itself.
The story’s pacing was strong throughout, keeping things entertaining from beginning to end without ever losing sight of its emotional core underneath the comedy. Aimee Townend’s performance as Gemma stood out in particular, expressive, precise, and completely believable in conveying everything the role demanded, whether Gemma was scurrying around as a mouse or grappling with heartbreak as a human. The wizard, too, (as played by Harry Singh) was a brilliant piece of characterization: full diva energy, which somehow felt exactly right for a character casually reshaping someone’s life on a whim. The wizard is a diva.
What makes Mouse work so well is how it uses its ridiculous premise as a genuine lens for examining love and human connection. Turning someone into a mouse could easily have been played for shock value or gimmick, but instead it becomes a clever device for asking real questions: does love have to look a certain way to count? Who decides whether an ex “really” loved you? And how do we hold onto our sense of self when someone else’s perception, literal or otherwise, is the thing determining our fate? By filtering all of this through comedy, and specifically queer comedy, the play manages to be both hilarious and quietly thoughtful.
As a season opener for North Sapph-Fest, Mouse delivers exactly what a festival built around bold, genre-defying queer storytelling should promise: something silly, sapphic, and surreal, but with real heart underneath. It’s a strong start to what sounds like it will be a joyful and much-needed addition to London’s theatre scene.
MOUSE ran from the 3rd to the 6th of August 2026 in The Hope Theatre.
I really enjoyed this fantastic show!!! It was fun & entertaining!! Totally worth it!! Loved it!!! Can t wait to see what comes next!!!