Review: Touching the Void, on stage in London’s West End

‘What next? A bloody musical?’
Joe Simpson

When a writer makes a comment like this about a stage-play version of his book, then it’s probably going to be a weird play. I have to confess, I raised my eyebrows too.

There aren’t many characters in Joe Simpson’s book Touching the Void, and the main one, Joe Simpson himself, spends most of the story entirely alone, contemplating existence as he crawls for three days along a glacier.

Loneliness and the act of dying alone is one the principal themes...