Saw the first performance of this at the Royal court on Wednesday, and despite a few shortcomings (which will undoubtedly get tightened up), thought this was a excellent new play. The timing, following the fallout of Sarah Palins appointment, could not have been more apposite, and the taut 75 minutes of the production does not allow the pace to falter.

I saw this tonight.... its incredibly moving. I was hit because I expected very much a highly political play but the last passage between Matthew Marsh and Eddie Redmayne is a tour de force and I was deeply moved. I'm from Belgium but am a huge fan of British theatre.

Saw Eddie Redmayne last night at this and he was astounding. Pitch perfect American accent and body language; he didn't seem to act, but just be in the moment. The play is also very clever, subtle and thought-provoking. Get your ticket now before the reviews come out and it sells out.
My only gripe is that it was too short - a very rare complaint I make!

i have to disagree. the play came alive in the last twenty minutes or so, with the father-son confrontation - but the rest felt like a college debate - intelligent, but going over very old ground - with unnecessary minor characters who we never get to know, and pointless (unjustiified, unmotivated) stake raising from outside - and an election going on offstage that's in the end just a distraction, because the events on stage don't affect it at all.. if we'd come in at the point twenty minutes before the end, if the character who had control of the pictures had been visible and present rather than a ghostly internet presence.., if we'd had more time to get to know the father and less time with his wife and acolytes (who, finally, have less invested and less power), this might have been a good play. as it is, (like more than a couple of recent plays at the court) it feels too much like journalism, not drama - and the story doesn't really justify the argument...

I think this is a very interesting, well performed piece of theatre. It's not the type of play I'd usually think of going to see, but I really enjoyed it! It is so much more than just a play about politics.

Really enjoyed this timely, stylish, eloquent little number. Matthew Marsh truly pulls out the stops in his generous, exuberant impersonation of a political leader. There's so much to enjoy in every moment of what he does. He's quite wonderful. And Eddie Redmayne is surely an Olivier contender with his big, searing indelible performance, fulfilling all the promise of his role in The Goat. I also thought Domhnall Gleeson as the friend and Pamela Nomvete as the apparatchik were deftly authentic too.

My only concern was that it's playing to the wrong crowd. Ultimately this play reminds us that we should be pragmatically sensitive of others' way of life, i.e. we should be liberal. But isn't that what everyone in the Royal Court auditorium is already? Personally, I'd take this play into secondary schools across the country because that's where its ideologies would surely have their greatest power.

Oh, TS, we live in a fantasy world where theatre is taken into secondary schools. May the force be with you.