“Is this all I'll ever be? A posh actor? I want to do Ibsen! I want to do Chekhov!” So howls our hero/antihero ‘Posh Actor’ in Ducktape or Cock-Up Theatre’s new play Working Class Hero, a satirical look at the experience of the arts industry from two seeming opposites in the London theatre world.

Oscar Nicholson plays the privileged, privately educated half of the duo, looking and sounding the part with his loose curls and clear accent. He brings energy and entitlement as his character glides from role to role with ease, as expected for his background, while stressing about being typecast on the London stage.

His best friend Stephan, played by Theo Hristov, struggles to land parts despite clear talent and steady work, and faces challenges he feels are made harder due to his Bulgarian nationality and perceived working class status. His growing frustration and resentment are clear in Hristov’s steady performance as an emerging actor in the UK theatre scene.

The plot centres on the pair’s deteriorating friendship as they try to secure opportunities outside their backgrounds and expected paths. Posh Actor makes several attempts to move away from the upper class English roles he is offered in BBC period dramas. Meanwhile, Stephan faces a “class ceiling” at several points and is shunned from roles that seem reserved only for the well connected. The climax arrives when Posh Actor is awarded a BAFTA for the title role in the movie his best friend wrote for himself, leading to Stephan’s final betrayal and humiliation.

There is clear chemistry between the players, making their characters believable, and at times their intimacy feels intense and delicate. As their careers grow apart and the gap in opportunity becomes more visible, their friendship visibly strains and falls away.

The production is well paced, with shifts that keep the audience interested. Set and costume design is sparse, but the actors use voice and movement well to introduce new characters and move the story forward in this piece of contemporary theatre.

The scenes move from comic to bleak, and the range of characters the actors take on supports the story, though sometimes bordering on pastiche, with Posh Actor’s repeated use of phrases like “Dear Boy” feeling too much. The audience stayed with the action even when scenes leaned toward slapstick. The setting and level of production feel close to what you expect at an Edinburgh fringe theatre show, and the venue at Barons Court Theatre adds little to the story or characters.

There is a sense that the social structures and class system are written from an outsider’s viewpoint, and the script feels simple in places and touches only lightly on the complexity of class in British theatre.

Still, Posh Actor tries to look at a number of important and long standing issues in contemporary society, from being a foreigner in two cultures to the ongoing advantage of a privileged background, all delivered in an entertaining and well performed production within the UK theatre scene.

The play was reviewed by Flicker Magazine on 22 November 2025.

Cast and Creatives

Working Class Hero is written by Theo Hristov and directed by Blanka Szentandrássy. The production features performances by Theo Hristov as Stephan and Oscar Nicholson as Posh Actor, bringing the story of friendship, class, and ambition to the stage.

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