Anna Burnside reviews a flawed production with solid performances.
Kerris, a paleoclimatologist, arrives on a remote British territory in the Pacific to study its coral. But instead of hanging out with marine invertebrates, she wants to know all about the island, its 48 inhabitants and its mysterious spiritual leader, known as the prophet.
It’s slowly revealed that the prophet is the leader of an abusive cult and that Kerris was motivated to come to the island because of her own experiences of abuse.
Xander Cowan works hard as Joe, Kerris’s landlord and one of the prophet’s victims. He’s also her boyfriend back home - it’s through their video calls that we learn her painful back story. And then he’s the prophet, unleashing Old Testament fury on the meddling outsider.
Rebecca Wilkie does her best with a script that asks her to do double duty as a climate scientist and cult investigator, thousands of miles from home, with nothing but some internet rumours and a strong sense of justice to go on.
Writer Jack MacGregor uses too many layers to make obvious points, which director Fraser Scott then underlines with swirling religious music. So we see that sexual abuse causes lifelong damage, pace Kerris’s tricky relationship with her boyfriend and Joe’s social awkwardness.
But by focussing on Joe’s experience, and making the prophet into a mysterious Wizard of Oz character on a creepy remote island, Prophets turns abuse into something exotic and site specific. Kerris’s domestic horror story, only hinted at until the end, is far more common. Just less dramatic.
Prophets performs at Assembly Roxy (Roxyboxy) until 31 August 2026 at 17:45 (60mins). For further information, go to the venue’s website.
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