Chester actor Tom Hughes opened in the West End to mixed reviews this week in the debut play by film director Paul Andrew Williams.
Ticking tells the story of a young man, Hughes, who awaits execution in a foreign prison, charged with the murder of a prostitute.
It focuses on his final meeting with his parents, played by Niamh Cusack and Anthony Head.
We take a look at the reviews of the play and what people thought of the former Upton-by-Chester High School pupil and Jigsaw Music Theatre patron.
The Evening Standard - Henry Hitchings
The play: "satisfyingly raw and intense", "Family’s thrilling death row drama stops the clocks"
Tom Hughes: "fidgety and combative as Simon"
theartsdesk.com - Marianka Swain
The play: "a grippingly played thriller"
Tom Hughes: "brattish, entitled, resentful, cruelly selfish" "Hughes’s body jerks and strains like a fish caught on the line"
What's On Stage - Holly Williams
The play: "feels like an exercise in cynicism"
Tom Hughes: "a twitchy, volatile performances as Simon", "Hughes certainly conveys the sarcastic, entitled air of the posh modern traveller"
The Stage - Natasha Tripney
The play: "disappointing prison drama"
Tom Hughes: "Tom Hughes’ Simon mainly seems to shout his lines"
The Daily Mail - Quentin Letts
The play: "Violent and clinched... but at least it's short" "By any measure of joylessness, Ticking scores highly"
Tom Hughes: "He swears a lot and is nervy, tremulous, prone to shouting"
Time Out London - Alice Saville
The play: "grim watching - for all the wrong reasons"
Tom Hughes: "Tom Hughes gives horrid concoction Simon a kind of manic, nice-guy energy – you can almost see the halo of a lost fedora"
The Times - Ann Treneman
The play: "Absolutely riveting"
Tom Hughes: You will need to be a subscriber to The Times to find out...