Double Double: Theatre Review (with the ending explained)

Double Double is a two-hander, romantic thriller play. It’s a captivating story, with a surprising twist. Here’s my Double Double theatre review – with the ending explained.

Overview and plot synopsis of Double Double

Double Double is a romantic thriller play written by Rick Elice and Roger Rees. It was originally performed in London in 1986, and more recently revived at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre in 2026.

My Double Double theatre review will first give an overview of the plot – but I won’t give any major spoilers in this first section. I’ll then talk about what I liked, and what I wasn’t so sure about. And then, at the end of this article, I’ll talk about the ending of the play. I usually wouldn’t talk about a big plot twist in a review – but I heard so many people after the show saying they were confused about the ending. So I’m going to talk about it, but not until the end of my article. There will be plenty of warnings before you get to the spoilers!

Double Double follows Philippa, a recently widowed woman whose husband Richard dies – shortly before his 40th birthday on which he was required to be alive to receive a substantial inheritance. Faced with the loss of this financial security, Philippa formulates a plan to locate someone who can convincingly impersonate Richard. She identifies Duncan, a Scottish homeless man who closely resembles her late husband.

Philippa brings Duncan into her home with the intention of training him to pass as Richard, aiming to secure the inheritance by presenting him as her still‑living spouse. The dynamic between them becomes the core of the story. Duncan must learn the high society behaviours, speech patterns, and social expectations associated with Richard’s life, while Philippa attempts to manage the risks inherent in the deception.

As the impersonation plan progresses, the balance of power between Philippa and Duncan shifts repeatedly. Increasingly, their feelings for each other grow, as does the uncertainty about which of them stands to gain or lose the most from their plan. But there’s more to the story, and everything isn’t quite what it appears.

What I liked about Double Double

I really enjoyed the play Double Double. I thought the acting was brilliant. It’s a two-hander play, and the two characters are both on stage for pretty much the whole play. But they manage to captivate the audience and carry the plot for 2 hours perfectly, which isn’t easy when there are just two actors and not much set change.

The story is good as well. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Philippa and Duncan develop. It’s funny at first, when Duncan is first in Philippa’s house in the opening scene. She’s putting newspaper down for him to walk on (saving the crossword of course). And he’s looking for things to sneak into his backpack whenever her back is turned. They’re both wary of each other, and each of their motives for being there. But gradually, we see their relationship develop, and the feelings between them grow. It’s a sort-of My Fair Lady kind of story, where Philippa is teaching the very rough, Scottish Duncan to be a high society man like Richard. And along the way, they get closer. It’s a nice story in that sense. But then, of course, there’s the plot twist – so it’s not just a simple romance story.

What I wasn’t so sure about

I generally enjoyed Double Double. There really wasn’t much I didn’t like. I was surprised how captivated I was for the whole 2 hours by just the two actors and the story. But there were still a few things I wasn’t so sure about.

Seeing the relationship develop more

I would have liked seeing Philippa and Duncan’s relationship develop a bit more in the earlier stages. I really enjoyed the beginning, where they were sceptical and distrusting of each other. But then I felt like the plot jumped a bit too quickly, to six days later, when there was about to be Richard’s birthday party. At this point, Duncan and Philippa are close, and he kisses her. I would have liked to have seen more about how their relationship developed over those 6 days, through the lessons in ‘how to be Richard’. Instead, it felt like that was skipped over too quickly, so we never got the slow-burn of their relationship growing.

Too many twists in the ending (no spoilers yet!)

I also felt like the ending of Double Double was quite confusing. I knew there was going to be a twist, so I was ready for it. And there were a few clues throughout the show that things maybe weren’t what they seemed. So I was ready for the big twist.

But it was so confusing. Instead of just one twist, there were about five or six, but then most of them turned out to be false. I’ll talk more about what these twists actually were in the next section, where I’ll give spoilers. But for me, the complications of so many fake/false twists took away from the big reveal of the actual twist – because the audience still wasn’t sure if that was actually real or not. And we all left the show feeling a bit confused, and too focussed on working out what had actually happened, rather than focussing on all the good things in the show.

The ending of Double Double explained

Ok, so now I’m going to talk about the actual ending of Double Double. So this section will include spoilers about the end of the play. So if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t read any further! It’s definitely best to go into the show not knowing how it ends. But if you have seen it, and are feeling a bit confused about the ending (like me), then hopefully this might help.

The final scene of the play takes place on the Monday. It’s the day after Richard’s 40th birthday party, and it seems that Duncan played his part perfectly, and no one suspected that he wasn’t Richard. They’ve got the meeting with the solicitor lined up, so everything looks set to go ahead to get the £10 million.

However, Philippa starts doubting the plan. Duncan reveals that at the party the night before, Richard’s ex-secretary was making moves, and clearly had an ongoing affair with Richard – which Philippa didn’t know about.

The fake twists begin

Then the twists begin. I can’t actually remember in what order things were said – because it was all quite confusing. Both Philippa and Duncan, but mostly Philippa, started giving alternative versions of the truth. One version was that there was a secret plan for Richard to run off with his secretary, and that they planned to kill Philippa once they had Richard’s money. I think Duncan believed this story, because he was trying to persuade Philippa to run away with him to Australia, forgetting the money, so they could be together.

But then Philippa starts talking about other versions of the ‘truth’. She says that she’s actually not Philippa at all, but actually the housemaid who worked for Philippa and Richard – but now pretending to be Philippa so she could get the money. There’s another version where Duncan starts accusing Philippa of actually murdering her husband.

I think there might have been more versions of the ‘truth’. All of these were passionately and emotively explained, leading the audience to believe that ‘that’ was the truth. But then it would be disproved, or debunked, and we’d go back to not believing it.

The actual twist

But then there’s what I think was the actual twist – the actual ending. Philippa agrees to run away with Duncan. But, just as he’s packing and looking for the passports, he trips on the broken step, grabs a light, end electrocutes himself. Then, when his body is laying on the floor, the real Richard comes in.

And it turns out that Richard wasn’t actually dead at all. And there was no Trust fund on Richard’s 40th birthday. The plan was to find someone who looked like Richard, and kill him, so then they could pretend it was Richard who had died and claim the life insurance money. Philippa and Richard’s relationship was never happy. However, it was never in the plan that Philippa was going to fall in love with the man who looked like Richard. So Philippa’s feelings for Duncan were genuine.

Clever staging for the final twist

There was some really clever staging that added to the twist ending. We see Duncan get electrocuted – there’s a big flash of light, then it goes dark, and then Duncan is laying on the floor. It completely looks like Duncan’s body on the floor. But it must have been a prop, because Richard then enters from another door. That was a big surprise – I was convinced he was the body on the floor, so it was a big shock to see him walk through the door as Richard.

And then, at the end of the show, it went dark again. Philippa came on stage for a bow. And then, what we thought was a prop of Duncan’s body, gets up and takes his bow. So they must have quickly swapped the prop for the real Duncan/Richard at the end. It was a clever ending, and definitely added to the slight confusion and feeling that everything was not as it seemed!

Would I recommend going to see Double Double

I enjoyed Double Double, so I would definitely recommend going to see it. It’s a great play, and amazing how just two actors can capture the attention of the audience for two hours on a small stage. I would have liked to see the relationship develop a bit more, and maybe the ending was a bit too confusing with all the fake twists that detracted from the real twist. But overall, my Double Double theatre review is positive, so I would recommend going to see the play.