Review: Guess How Much I Love You
“People are capable of anything. Including this. Including you.”
The world premiere of Guess How Much I Love You opens with a simple game of 20 Questions. The first words spoken—“alive or dead”—echo through the play with increasing weight as the story unfolds. We meet an unnamed couple as they wait for their 20-week pregnancy scan but they soon discover that the life they had planned is slipping through their fingers. Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Luke Norris tackles the fragility of starting a family, the inner battle of difficult choices and the weight of loss and grief. Yet it’s also a play about resilience, hope, survival and love.
Robert Aramayo (2026 BAFTA Rising Star nominee and 2025 BIFA winner for I Swear) and Rosie Sheehy (Olivier nominee for Machinal) make exceptional Royal Court debuts. From the first moments, through a mix of bluntness and humour, we feel how deeply this couple knows one another, as if we’re a fly on the wall witnessing something private and unguarded. At one point, Sheehy releases a scream after a pivotal decision that is genuinely gut‑wrenching. Even the spit that flew as they shouted — unintentional, simply the force of the moment — added to the rawness.
Jeremy Herrin (Olivier Award‑winner for People, Places and Things) directs with precision, maintaining energy that carries the 95‑minute, no‑interval production with ease. The semi‑circular set confines the actors to the centre, heightening the intensity, yet there’s enough movement to keep the space alive.
The design shifts between six locations—appointment rooms, home, hospital—each rendered with striking realism: toothbrushes by the sink, a pile of clothes in the bedroom. Blackouts and music mark transitions, signalling both time passing and emotional shifts. On one occasion, the music felt at odds with the moment that preceded it, but overall the rhythm works. Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting is particularly strong in the hospital scenes: the harsh overhead light, the sudden wash of sunlight from opening a curtain on a 35‑degree day. These choices sharpen the emotional stakes.
The couple’s anonymity makes them feel universal—anyone, anywhere, facing an unthinkable situation. The dialogue is fast, furious, and often funny, capturing the mundane rhythms of real relationships: debating takeaway options, tossing around baby names. There’s also rawness and truth in the way they snap “grow up grow up grow up” or “I hate you” in the heat of the moment. Silence is particularly effective in one scene — during a medical examination by the midwife (played by Lena Kaur) the audience holds its breath alongside the characters. The ending leans slightly towards cliché, but by that point the emotional journey has earned it.
One minute you’re laughing; the next you’re confronting questions you didn’t expect to ask yourself. My friend and I left the theatre immediately discussing what we would do in their position—proof of how deeply the play gets under your skin.
Guess How Much I Love You is raw, intimate, and unflinchingly human. Anyone considering attending should check the content advice on the Royal Court website—QR‑coded cards are also handed out on arrival.
If you’re after something light and comforting, this isn’t it. But if you want a play that hits hard, provokes conversation, and lingers long after the lights come up, it’s a powerful, worthwhile watch.
Guess How Much I Love You performs from 24th January to 21st February 2026. Monday to Friday at 7:30pm, Thursday matinee at 2:30pm and Saturdays 1:30 and 6:30pm. Tickets from £15.
Address: Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AS
Website: https://royalcourttheatre.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/royalcourttheatre
Written by Caitlin Neal.
