Righton Productions’ Conflict Of Interest – 17 July 2026, Lantern Theatre
Review by Paula Turner.
The Lantern Theatre is over 129 years old, and a grade II listed building, describing itself as “Sheffield’s oldest surviving theatre”. With a small stage and only 84 seats it still manages to host a regular programme of plays, music and comedy from various companies.
In contrast to that long history, we visited the Lantern tonight as Thomas Carruthers brings his brand-new play ‘Conflict of Interest’ performed by Righton Theatre to the stage ahead of a London run later this year.
Righton are normally known for comedies, but this is their first full-on drama – and it’s a real tour-de-force.
Described as a legal drama set in 1982, it centres around five characters: partner lawyers Arthur Carmichael (played by Carruthers himself) and Mitchell Hargrieve (Will Leggeter), Rita Lempkin (Rhian Holmes), who admits that she murdered her real-estate mogul husband Ralph, Arthur’s wife Lucy (Maeve-Anne Allen), who nine years ago Arthur got off a similar murder charge, and Talia Cooper (Amy Cash), a young trainee lawyer.
Carruthers has written himself a fantastic lead role, but the other characters are equally gripping and they all bring energy and presence to the evolving narrative. Carruthers’ plays Arthur with a beautifully open initial charisma, and Leggeter gives Mitchell a wormlike aggression (as well as playing an amusing drunk), while Holmes’ Rita is a Southern bitch who is more acute than we at first assume. Allen has a light touch as she portrays Lucy, the perfect and composed wife and daughter, and Cash’s Talia has a nervous energy as the ambitious young woman navigating the boys’ club of the 1980s American legal profession by making compromises.
Without giving any spoilers to the plot I can say that, as the events unfold, only Rita is honest, none of the characters survive without changing and nothing is as it first seems to be. Audience members behind me were audibly gasping at the twists and turns.
Jazmine Sewsanker’s direction is seamless, and though this was the first night it was obvious the cast were well rehearsed and confident. When a play is set in America I’m often concerned that the actors’ accents may be jarring, but these were all spot on. The set and lighting were a little simply presented, possibly due to the constraints of the stage, but this was not to the detriment of the flow of the play – indeed, I would say the sets could even have been made more sparse (although then we might have missed out on the Christmas decorations!).
It’s a legal drama, yes – but this is a play about human nature, about the lies people tell others and the fictions they make for themselves. The play begins with Arthur addressing the audience as a jury, saying it’s all about facts, and later Talia says ‘we tell the truth,’ but we soon see that these statements don’t hold up for long.
If you can’t catch the second and final night at the Lantern (Saturday 18th July) – and I’d recommend you do if you can – then you can have another chance in October at the Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2NA. And I look forward to seeing future productions from this young company in Sheffield again in the future.
