'The Little Foxes' review — Anne-Marie Duff and Eleanor Worthington-Cox give star turns in Lillian Hellman's seething family drama

Read our review of 1939 play The Little Foxes, directed by Lyndsey Turner, now in performances at the Young Vic to 8 February 2025.

On a stage near Waterloo, a man learns the important life lesson that material wealth isn’t everything and that relationships should be nurtured. The man comes to this discovery night after night, year after year, as the Old Vic reprogrammes its beloved production of A Christmas Carol – and audiences flock to see this epiphany being reached all over again. On another stage just down the road, no such discovery is made by three grown-up siblings, who at the start of Lillian Hellman’s 1939 play The Little Foxes think the dogged pursuit of wealth is worth risking their nearest relationships for – and by the end think pretty much the same.

There’s no solace in Hellman’s tale of white American southerners who made it rich off the cotton fields and the exploitation of others. And while Lyndsey Turner’s production is infused with some star-turn performances – in particular the indomitable Anne-Marie Duff as a quietly seething Regina Hubbard and Eleanor Worthington-Cox as her gradually defiant daughter Alexandra – it remains a tricky, hard-nosed play that seems to hold its audience at a distance.

Unlike Stefano Massini’s masterpiece The Lehman Trilogy, which confides in its viewers every step of the way as it tells a story of siblings who also (at least initially) make their money off cotton, there are chunks of cold, hard business talk in Hellman’s play that are virtually opaque. Trying to follow along is like having an ear pressed against the door of a boardroom meeting – occasionally catching words such as “bonds” and “shares” – but little to string them together. It’s not helped when Alexandra and her aunt Birdie (an increasingly pitiful Anna Madeley) start playing the piano over the top of the conversation either.

It does grow more comprehensive though, and suitably tense, as we realise just what these siblings will do to get their share of wealth. Benjamin (Mark Bonnar) and Oscar (Steffan Rhodri) inherited the family money, and have turned their portions into small fortunes. Regina, born into a society where women were often not considered legal heirs, has had to endure a disdainful marriage to the now sickly Horace (John Light) in order to support herself.

There’s plenty of no-holds-barred sexism, not to mention a thunderclap of domestic violence to drive home just what a wretched moral cesspit this turn-of-the-20th-century Alabaman society is built on. And that’s before even touching on the race divide, which in Turner’s production is cleverly visible through a split-stage set that often sees the two Black househands, the wise Addie (Andrea Davy) and skittish Cal (Freddie MacBruce), silently working in whichever portion of the home the family isn’t occupying.

Lizzie Clachan’s set sees the action play out on a chic, cinematic slip of a stage that’s too refined and ahead of its time to really reflect this nouveau riche family, but is certainly easy on the eye with its fawn tones and mid-century furniture.

Everyone is miserable in this house, where children become pawns in their parents’ gross games to keep wealth in the family, and women are told a frown never got them anywhere. Duff’s Regina and Worthington-Cox’s Alexandra share a painful final scene, yet there’s no real sense of redemption, which makes this a hard watch. Their performances, though, are tip-top.

The Little Foxes is at the Young Vic to 8 February 2025. Book The Little Foxes tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: The Little Foxes (Photos by Johan Persson)