The Silence of the Lambs

Curve, Leicester

5^th August, 2026

“Tell me, Clarice. Did the lambs stop screaming?”

Page-to-stage adaptations of thrillers have an enduring appeal to audiences and theatres. From Agatha Christie to more modern successes like The Girl on the Train and this Autumn’s touring production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, thrillers bring in new audiences and provide an opportunity to see these stories’ heroes and villains in the flesh. ‘In the flesh’ couldn’t be more appropriate a phrase for the stage premiere of Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel about an FBI trainee who uses prison visits with infamous murderer Dr Hannibal Lecter (John Partridge) to catch a serial killer. It’s a hugely ambitious undertaking and on which Nikolai Foster’s confident production fully embraces.

Playwright Gina Gionfriddo is a smart choice to adapt Harris’ novel. As a seasoned writer on Law & Order and FBI: Most Wanted, she has the knowledge and interest in the inner workings of those who commit horrible crimes. And her plays like Rapture, Blister, Burn (2012) and Becky Shaw (2008) – which was recently nominated for Best Play Revival at the Tony Awards – explore brutality in male-female power dynamics. She rightly places Clarice centre stage. Foster places our focus on her from the offset, introducing her outsmarting the male cadets with her psychological insights, stubbornness to keep digging for answers, and deftness with a gun. Setting the play in the 80s adds an extra element to the gender politics, and it’s not just the prisoners who provide barriers to her. Whilst the plot shows many of the play’s women as victims, Clarice is far from this, and she navigates social challenges, personal demons, and literal battles with serial killers heroically.

It’s no surprise then that Agent Jack Crawford (Oliver Farnworth) chooses her to meet Lecter to gain insight into the mind of Buffalo Bill. Michael Taylor’s tricksy set shows the oppressiveness of prison life and his rendering of Lecter’s high-security cell is inspired by the production design of the movie. But bullet-proof glass, stone walls and heavy locks aren’t enough to contain Lecter’s wits and it’s the scenes between Lecter and Clarice where the Gionfriddo’s dialogue crackles. There’s added theatricality when we first meet Lecter, his cell slowly brought onstage with Partridge facing out to the audience, hands on the glass, accompanied by Grant Olding’s prophetic music. Partridge is clever casting: he has a dominating presence, a chiselled handsomeness, and conveys Lecter’s charm and gentility naturally. Its these attributes, the glint in his eye a mere suggestion of what he’s capable of, which make him so watchable. And whilst there’s an easy inclination to compare him to Anthony Hopkins’ performance, Gionfriddo’s decision to cut some of the more quotable lines from the movie avoids his performance veering into pastiche. Lecter doesn’t easily give Clarice what she wants and Giondriddo doesn’t give in to the same temptations for the audience. Partridge is easily matched by Mollie Gallagher’s unflinching portrayal as Clarice. Her unblinking intensity is compelling; she at times seems to be performing on a forward slant as if to demonstrate Clarice’s fearless head-on nature. For her professional stage debut, she gives a remarkable performance. They’re well-supported by a cast which includes a lot of talent local to Leicester, but it’s Partridge and Gallagher’s relationship which raises the standard, and their scenes together are the most effective in the play as they give superbly convincing central performances.

Foster’s production balances the stillness of these two-hander scenes in Hannibal Lecter’s cell with the more action-packed scenes that follow Buffalo Bill (Sam Jackson). These have a cinematic momentum, aided by George Reeve’s projections to locate the action across various US states, and Olding’s music and Carolyn Downing’s sound design which underscores most of the evening. There’s a considerable amount of gore, an impressive fight scene, and cinematic realism which has transferred to the stage seamlessly.

Gionfriddo’s work has been compared with Wendy Wasserstein’s. In Wasserstein’s play The Heidi Chronicles, another play about the struggles of women in a patriarchal world, Heidi’s advised that ‘men don't dance with desperate women’. It’s Clarice strength which makes her Lecter’s match. Audiences won’t be disappointed by the play’s showier moments, but for me the prison scenes are the best, when we see Clarice and Lecter duel so effectively. The premiere of The Silence of the Lambs on stage might struggle to fully eschew the film’s legacy, but it does satiate on a number of fronts and is a welcome addition to the stage thriller oeuvre.

The Silence of the Lambs plays at Curve, Leicester until 15^th August followed by a UK tour. For further information please visit The Silence of the Lambs - Curve Theatre, Leicester

John Partridge as Dr Hannibal Lecter and Mollie Gallagher as Clarice in The Silence of the Lambs. Credit: Marc Brenner