Reader Reviews
Forty Winks (Royal Court - Jerwood Theatre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | At 65 minutes this might be a minature, but it's a minature masterpiece. A fascinating story told in four scenes (three short and one long) which are out of sequence. Despite its length, the characters develop fully and the story unravels intriguingly. The design, staging and performances are faultless. I left the theatre feeling more satisfied than many 3-hour epics. Kevin Elyot confirms himself as one of our great new playrights. - 81.134.81.210) | 03 Dec 04 |
| I enjoyed this play, though it did make me worry that Elyot is recycling his theme maybe too obsessively, and running out of changes to ring on it. It's an impeccable production, with very strong acting all round (Rowan, Ready, and Hille are especially fine), and the first two scenes are quite brilliant. After that, though, the play seems to run out of gas, and the ending is obvious and banal. I'd like to see Elyot take the play apart and develop it more fully. But it was certainly a compelling theatrical experience, guided by the always scintillating Katie Mitchell. - 132.162.40.214) | 09 Nov 04 |
| For me Forty Winks is definitely one of the plays of the year. It may be brief but it is also rich in allusions, cross-references, and reverberations which stayed with me long after the final curtain. It has been the subject of much discussion since, as it is so much richer in detail than its simple surface suggests. I see the much criticised 'scene changes' as necessary 'gear changes' which bring down a shutter separating one important time-change from the next. Annastasia Hille gives an astounding performance as a woman totally fazed by a face from her past, and Dominic Rowan brings a creepy blandness so appropriate to the ambiguity of his character. Once again Kevin Elyot has brought his special originality to an unusual examination of obsession, sexual desire and how a 'moment' (thank you Mark) can change a life. - 82.43.170.60) | 08 Nov 04 |
| 'Forty Winks' is strange... and strangely unengaging - and I left feeling I'd failed to grasp what it all meant. Fortunately, it's a short one. The whatsonstage review is spot-on about the set changes, insomuch that the stagehands shift around a lot in a (relatively) short space of time, but still, you're plunged into darkness for too long and you get restless. However, the acting is fine - not 'wooden' - especially Anastasia Hille. - 193.130.127.205) | 08 Nov 04 |
| I would give this no stars if it were possible. Absoolutely terrible. The scrpit is utterly banal, predictable and completely uniteresting. The acting is wooden, cliched and yet, is never given a chance to show itself since the director has decide to have the actors with their back to the audience for most of the performance. A waste of time. - 80.225.65.244) | 06 Nov 04 |
| This is an absolute damp squip of a play. None of the ideas are developed, the characters are sketchy, the structure about as hopeless as you can get. It manages to be both a lurid potboiler and utterly inconsequential at once, which is some kind of achievement. At £30 for an hour and 5 minutes, it is a real rip-off - especially as 5 of those minutes are taken by scene changes. - 158.94.254.20) | 04 Nov 04 |
