Bitch Boxer Review at Arcola Theatre London 2026

Jodie Campbell leads Charlie Josephine’s Bitch Boxer at Arcola Theatre London in a focused and physical one woman show.

Bitch Boxer at Arcola Theatre

More than a decade after it first appeared, Bitch Boxer finds its way back to London. Charlie Josephine’s debut, first recognised in 2012, returns in a revival directed by Prime Isaac. After a 2025 run at Watford Palace Theatre, the production now plays in Studio 2 at Arcola Theatre in Dalston.

Chloe Jackson is played by Jodie Campbell, known to many from BBC Three’s Boarders . Here, she carries the stage alone. It is a gripping performance from Jodie Campbell, controlled and alert from the first movement.

The play is set in 2012, the year women were first allowed to compete in Olympic boxing. Stratford is only a short journey from Chloe’s Leytonstone home. The Games are happening nearby. The opportunity feels real. It also brings scrutiny. Visibility has weight.

Prime Isaac keeps the entire production inside a boxing ring. Even when Chloe talks about home, about nights out, about her girlfriend Jamie, she remains framed by the ropes. There is nowhere to escape the ring. Or the memory.

Designer Hazel Lowe places a punch bag in the corner stitched from old jeans and shirts. It looks worn, almost improvised. Not sleek. Not decorative. It belongs there. Jessie Addinall’s lighting tightens around the final fight sequences without turning them showy. In the small studio space, you hear Campbell’s breath shift as she moves.

She begins with speed, telling us how she locked herself out of the flat and scrambled barefoot over neighbours’ fences, dodging a barking dog and worse. The audience laughs easily. The humour settles the room before the tone turns.

At the centre of the story is Chloe’s father. He ran the gym. He trained her. He corrected her stance and counted her combinations. Early mornings. Repetition. Routine. The discipline shaped her long before medals were part of the conversation. When he dies, the training continues. If anything, it becomes harder.

Boxing starts to feel like refusal. If she keeps moving, she does not have to stop and sit with what has happened. When her trainer tells her to end a session early, her reaction is immediate and sharp. It is not just about fitness. It is about control. Stillness feels dangerous.

Under Isaac’s direction, Chloe is Black and queer. In scenes with Jamie, their relationship unfolds without commentary. It sits inside the story, ordinary and present. The focus remains on grief, ambition and the pressure she places on herself.

Josephine’s script leans heavily on fight imagery. At times the parallels feel direct. Yet the writing is sharpest in its specifics. Chloe’s irritation at funeral flowers. Her suspicion of the therapist assigned to her. The small resentments that feel more honest than grand speeches.

The nightclub scene shifts the tempo. Sound deepens. Light tightens. For a moment, she drops the guard. The energy loosens before pulling back again.

During the final fight, the studio feels smaller than it did at the start. You can hear her breathing change. No one in the audience moves. An intimate revival that lands its punches quietly.

In Studio 2, there is nowhere to hide. Campbell holds the space steadily. It is a bruised but standing portrait of determination.