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Review Round-up: Chariots of Fire takes the silver

Chariots of Fire, directed by Edward Hall, premiered last night at the Hampstead Theatre. The play is based on the 1981 movie and tells the story of two British athletes competing in the track competition of the 1924 Olympics.

James McArdle plays the role of Harold Abrahams, a Jewish undergraduate at Cambridge, and Jack Lowden plays Eric Liddell, a Scottish Christian.

The play runs until 16 June at the Hampstead Theatre and then continues at the Gielgud Theatre from 22 June to 10 November.

Michael Coveney
Whatsonstage.com
★★★★

“Designer Miriam Buether has transformed Hampstead Theatre into a compact arena stadium for Edward Hall’s staging of the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, a show that ignites the Olympic spirit and then douses it in patriotic fervour with Gilbert and Sullivan, the Eton boating song, 'Rule Britannia' and 'Jerusalem'. Mike Bartlett’s functional script is a pretty accurate re-run of Colin Welland’s screenplay, though he’s 'stranded out' a bit more the parallel stories of Eric Liddell (Jack Lowden), the Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams (James McArdle), the immigrant Lithuanian Jew, who employs a professional coach (Nicholas Woodeson) to win at all costs…In the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year we are frantically reinventing our recent past as an ideal scrapbook of memories and Chariots of Fire – which goes straight into the Gielgud Theatre after Hampstead – may well feed this yearning and mood of escapism. It’s very well done and a highly enjoyable show on its own terms, with Vangelis’s original score supplemented by composer Jason Carr, a cavalcade of nostalgia-stained costumes (blazers, boaters, baggy shorts and calf-length summer dresses) by Michael Howells, and a versatile, and super-fit, company of 20 actors.”

Andrzej Lukowski
Time Out
★★★★

“Edward Hall's production doesn't quite earn a gold, but it is a very creditable silver. This is the first outing as adapter for the hugely talented Bartlett, who currently has a hit at Royal Court with his baby boomer comedy Love, Love, Love. It brings out the best in his writing: his text is funny, pithy and creative, but without the over-ambition or clanging rhetoric that sometimes mars his plays. He distils Chariots into a series of short, lively scenes that eschew excessive outbursts of patriotism and focus on what drove these two men to run. McArdle's Abrahams is the star here: his outer suaveness and matinee idol jawline is a mask that is slowly corroded by his seething ambition and terrible chip on his shoulder about his poverty-stricken Jewish background. The inner conflict of Lowden's devout Christian, Liddell, feels less real: we are well aware that he will find a way around his unwillingness to race on the Sabbath. Nonetheless, he's an intensely likeable anchor to the spectacle. And a spectacle is exactly what this is: a witty marathon of sight, sound and sweat that stays on the credible side of cheesiness without letting Bartlett's interrogation of the athletic drive interfere with the fun.”

Henry Hitchings
The Evening Standard
★★★★

“
Energy and conviction make Chariots of Fire a satisfying experience”
Henry Hitchings

“Edward Hall’s assured staging features brawny choreography by Scott Ambler, Vangelis’s original music from the film (supplemented with a good deal of Gilbert and Sullivan) and some very effective lighting by Rick Fisher. A tribute in the programme to a coach from British Military Fitness is hardly a surprise: the challenges of the production are punishing yet handled with aplomb. We’re never in any doubt about what will happen, and some of the more breathless sequences are unsubtle. But Bartlett has responded warmly to Colin Welland’s film script, underscoring its interest in outsiders and the question of what it means to be British. This is undeniably bombastic fare. If you’re the sort of person who sheds a tear at Jerusalem, there’s a strong chance you’ll love it. If you’re not, you may still marvel at the hearty physicality on show. Although not in the end a gold-medal performance, energy and conviction make Chariots of Fire a satisfying experience.”

Michael Billington
Guardian
★★★★

“The story is told in a succession of quick, staccato scenes that betray the piece's cinematic origin. But Hall's production ingeniously solves the problem of putting athletics on stage thanks to a characteristically brilliant Miriam Buether set. She turns the theatre into a series of concentric circles so that the main acting-area is a rounded disc equipped with two revolving stages. Behind the stalls runs another circular track which the actors constantly pound. Wherever you sit, you are bound to feel the whiff and wind of hurtling bodies in a state of seemingly perpetual motion. But Hall has gone further and turned the play into a kaleidoscopic pageant of 1920s British life… It's not an evening of in-depth acting but the cast is as fit as a string band's worth of fiddles. James Mcardle also conveys Abrahams's relentless pursuit of perfection, Jack Lowden is suitably uncompromising as Liddell and Tam Williams deserves a special medal for thrice leaping over a hurdle on which two glasses of champagne are perilously poised. Nicholas Woodeson as a straw-hatted coach and Antonia Bernath as Liddell's Canadian admirer make their distinctive mark. And, even if the piece sometimes plays too easily on our emotional responses, it is an ensemble triumph that will clearly enjoy the longest of runs.”

Mark Shenton
The Stage

Related Content

Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	Chariots of Fire Listing Page
	Chariots of Fire Listing Page

Internal Links
	Chariots of Fire posts early closing notices at Gielgud Theatre, 5 Jan - 2nd Jan 2013 news
	Plays extend: Young Vic's Three Sisters, West End Chariots - 19th Sep 2012 news
	WOS Radio: Mike Bartlett & cast at Chariots of Fire Q&A - 2nd Aug 2012 radio
	Live Tweeting: #WOSOuting to Chariots of Fire, Q&A with writer & cast - 1st Aug 2012 news
	Video: Olympic torch runs through West End to Chariots of Fire theme - 27th Jul 2012 tv
	Photos: Vangelis & Chariots of Fire greet Olympic torch in West End - 27th Jul 2012 photos
	Photos: Chariots of Fire film stars meet West End actors - 11th Jul 2012 news
	Year of the Producer: Barbara Broccoli's Eureka Moment for Chariots of Fire - 6th Jul 2012 interviews
	1st Night Photos: Biggins & Bond brush shoulders at Chariots of Fire - 4th Jul 2012 photos
	Chariots of Fire - 23rd May 2012 reviews
	Hampstead's false economy - 3rd May 2012 blog
	Hampstead's Chariots of Fire confirms West End transfer, 22 Jun - 18th Apr 2012 news
	Will Hampstead's Chariots of Fire sprint into Gielgud? - 17th Apr 2012 gossip
	Williams, Grace & McArdle join cast for Hampstead's Chariots of Fire - 3rd Apr 2012 news
	Black Watch's Lowden plays Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire - 9th Mar 2012 news
	Hall marks a tight spot - 8th Feb 2012 blog
	Hampstead stages Chariots of Fire ahead of Olympics - 30th Jan 2012 news

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