Riverside Studios, London
Adapted from a French bestseller, this fictional story of Martin, who missed out on the role of a lifetime, becomes a meditation on how lives are changed

Martin has a meltdown during his pregnant partner’s 12-week scan. For reasons he can’t divine, the prospect of fatherhood is dredging up his childhood demons, specifically the lingering humiliation of being passed over for the film role of Harry Potter when he was 10. These flashbacks trigger a reappraisal of a life lived in the shadow of the Potter franchise that has dogged Martin like an inescapable flock of Dementors.

If this sounds like a slender premise, don’t be fooled. Adapted by Barney Norris from David Foenkinos’s bestselling 2022 French novel, directed by Michael Longhurst, Second Best is a deceptively unassuming play. What starts out like a comical but mundane monologue soon becomes an elegant meditation on the misshapen nature of trauma.