The Royal Court’s latest world premiere, Guess How Much I Love You?, opens with impressive creative pedigree and an undeniably weighty subject. Written by Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Luke Norris and directed by Olivier Award-winner Jeremy Herrin, the production examines love under extreme pressure, following a pregnant couple whose lives are thrown into turmoil as they are forced to confront an impossible decision.
The couple, named only HIM and HER, are brought to life by Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo, both making their Royal Court debuts. From the very first line, they are already locked in conflict, arguing with a ferocity that rarely subsides across the play’s ninety minutes. This choice immediately signals the tone: intense, emotionally raw and often confrontational, but it also presents one of the production’s central challenges. We never see this couple before the devastating turn that defines their story, and as a result, we never get to see this as a functioning relationship. Instead, we are plunged straight into the aftermath, left to decipher a marriage already corroded by grief and blame.
The decision to name the characters HIM and HER reinforces this emotional distance. Intended, perhaps, to universalise their experience, it can instead feel alienating, making it harder to fully identify with either partner. HER frequently gaslights HIM, redirecting responsibility and emotional weight onto him, and while this dynamic may be deliberate, it often renders the characters unlikeable. Too often the play becomes an unbroken series of arguments, many of them circular and abruptly resolved. Vicious, deeply wounding exchanges suddenly dissolve into casual humour about pistachio ice cream, undercutting the realism of the grief being portrayed.
Yet when Guess How Much I Love You? allows space for stillness, its power becomes apparent. One hospital scene in particular stands out, a visually arresting moment that captures loss with heartbreaking clarity. The use of striking imagery brings the audience closer to the inexpressible reality of grief, showing rather than telling in a way the rest of the script sometimes resists. Unfortunately, this scene also contains one of the production’s least convincing arguments, an example of how Norris’s writing can undermine its strongest ideas by leaning too heavily on confrontation.
Throughout, there are repeated references to Hamlet, with grief framed as something philosophically expansive and tragic. However, these allusions do not add the nuance they promise. The dialogue is often blunt and loudly declarative, relying on shock and volume instead of subtext. As the play moves toward its conclusion, the emotional beats become predictable, and the final scene feels more engineered than discovered.
Sheehy and Aramayo commit fully to the emotional demands of the script, delivering disciplined and often compelling performances. The rotating set, shifting seamlessly between hospital, bedroom and bathroom, offers a strong visual framework and keeps the action fluid.
Guess How Much I Love You? tackles an important and painful subject with bravery, and its intentions are sincere. However, to fully feel the devastating weight of such a story, we need to understand, if not love, the people living through it. This production comes close, but its relentless conflict too often keeps the audience at a frustrated distance.
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