The Shawshank Redemption 
Theatre Royal Windsor
★★★★

THIS excellent stage adaptation of Shawshank Redemption really encapsulates the injustice, yet also the triumph at the heart of Stephen King’s book.

It was always going to be a tough task to adapt Shawshank Redemption to the stage, especially when the production hangs in the shadow of the brilliant film, starring Tim Robbins (as Andy Dufresne), and Morgan Freeman (as Ellis “Red” Redding). In this stage version, Joe McFadden as Dufresne and Ben Onwukwe as Redding make a good attempt at walking in the shoes of Robbins and Freeman.

Onwukwe particularly well captures the wheeler dealer yet decent nature of Redding. He also narrates the whole thing nicely. Bill Ward also does well as Warden Stammas, without quite conjuring up the cold terror of the film version character. Indeed, the violence on stage is somewhat toned down. The plot largely evolves around these three central characters.

Original adapters Owen O’Neill and David Johns have done a fine job, creating a contracted version of the original while remaining true to the narrative, although this is an adaptation that has had several rewrites over the years. Director David Esbjornson does a slick job with this version, keeping the momentum going throughout a compact plot.

The set can at times seem a little cramped, moving from prison yard to warden’s office and the much-campaigned-for library. But in the main, a limited space is well used.

The overwhelming theme of the play is injustice and the struggle of so many in the prison system to fight against the odds to get justice. In this case, for Redding and Dufresne, the final redemption is found on a beach in Mexico.

The story, of course, is also one of an utterly corrupt system that seems to punish those seeking justice — a theme that resonates with the system here and even more in the US, which always seems to take things that one step further, with more stark and brutal scenarios.

This production does well in depicting the 1950s system and how little has changed, through to the present day, in terms of brutality and injustice.

An excellent production, well worth seeing.

Runs until September 6 and on tour until June 6 2026. For more information see: kenwright.com.