Reader Reviews
Playing Cards 1: SPADES (Roundhouse, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | Saw it tonight and all ran to plan. But then I purposely didn't book a preview, as that's exactly what they are designed for - testing! The staging is ingenious and brilliantly creative. As you'd expect from Lepage. But the narrative needs some work. It's all very watchable but equally very meaningless. The actors are brilliant. You can hardly believe there are only 6 actors in the whole play. Definitely worth seeing for the staging alone. But don't expect to witness a challenging play. Oh and the Roundhouse rocks. Sh*t happens. Get over it. - Adam | 14 Feb 13 |
| I watched Playing Cards Spades last night, after having read about it on FT. The set is absolutely amazing, never seen anything like that. The play is rich, with the six actors playing approx. 30 characters, in both French and Spanish. I really enjoyed its creativity and execution! ps. Sound, translation were perfect - Matthew | 14 Feb 13 |
| I left the theatre angry. I saw a preview in which the translation not so much as broke, but was often lagging behind and skipping lines, which left me and the other people next to me wondering what the heck. The Roundhouse refused to provide any remedy, refund or the script to fill in the gaps. Other than the PLOT being lost on us - it was nothing but uninteresting. The sound was too low, the mics didn't always function well enough, the visuals were interesting but no statement meant anything. And I hate how you can always go weird on us and make it David Lynch. Wow. How dumbfounded we can be. A waste of 30 pounds. I';ll never again go to the Roundhouse preview, and neither should anyone else. If you tell you customers that the fact that they pay 5 pounds less than the full price means you can screw them over and not fill responsible for what you stage - then I have no reason to sponsor that establishment any more. Risks I shall not take again with them. - Iddo Av | 13 Feb 13 |
| Banal dialogue, poor characterisation, trite plot devices, effects that slow the storytelling rather than enhance, an ill conceived concept that does not work, this was all the worse aspects of Lepage thrown into one roulette wheel and not allowed to settle. By the end our side of the audience were laughing at this dire piece. I have no idea what show you saw but it did not warrant 4 stars. - Tom Stokes | 12 Feb 13 |
