Reader Reviews
Six Characters in Search of an Author (Gielgud Theatre, West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | Five stars for the sheer audacity of the writers, the director and the actors who performed this surreal piece based around Pirendello's classic play. They kept the audience at the matinee I attended entranced, either that or, to use a common parlance, Gobsmacked! I thoroughly enjoyed it and judging by the bravos and cheers, from the almost full house, many more did too. I tried desperately to understand what was happening, which I hope to some degree I did, but anyway I can read it up later. Very good performances and one brilliant one from The Master, Ian MacDiarmid, made for a very weird, but very enjoyable wet Saturday afternoon. Mr MacDiarmid can mix sarcastic with sincerity and come up with sinister. He deserves the Best Actor Olivier this year for his performance. It's a pity it only had a couple of months in Town - it deserves longer. - rds | 08 Nov 08 |
| My head has been well and truly f****d by the changes that have been made to this play to modernise it. A twisting and turning narrative where nothing is as it seems and concentration is required to keep on top of all of the shifts of emphasis and narrative technique but it goes on for at least one ending too long, and the Producer carrying the child scene is overlong but somehow it all hangs together and I think my perception of reality has been shattered. Thought Provoking but flawed. ....and kudos to the Step-Daughter for managing to stay on her feet in those rollerskates. - QuincyMD | 28 Oct 08 |
| a big mess. some striking moments and images, and good acting - but no intellectual coherence, no argument - power and goold just throw together a set of conflicting realities (with no consistent sense of how they relate to each other) and try to work the old trick of mentioning ideas and hoping that people will assume they actually have something to say.. - fred | 25 Oct 08 |
| Unreviewable due to the appalling bevaviour of a large group of kids who had no idea how to behave in a theatre or any understanding of what they were watching. For the first time ever I was forced to leave at the interval. Shame on them, the adults supposedly supervising them and Delfont Mackintosh for encouraging such a rowdy group to see a difficult and challenging play which demands concentration. - David Baxter | 23 Oct 08 |
| Tremendous! A real theatrical treat with not a trace of a reality tv contestant within. Fine acting and such imaginative direction and staging! The first half, though, is too long and sags but after the interval the show stuns and intrigues. Catch it while you can! - Carrie Cohen | 23 Oct 08 |
| It is not for everyone and its not perfect. However, if you like theatre which engages the mind, this must be one of the best things to see in London and in the West End! I only wish the NT could produce something as entertaining. - CAA | 03 Oct 08 |
| ASTONISHING THEATRICAL TREAT PACKED WITH PYROTECHNIC SURPRISES,SEXUAL PROVOCATION,BROAD COMEDY, AND WEIRD WICKEDNESS. USE OF FILM AND TELEVISION - AND SONIC THRILLS - INGENIOUS. A GRIPPING EXPERIENCE FOR ALL THEATRE LOVERS. - Adam Green | 25 Sep 08 |
| Such are the twists of this wonderful staging that one wouldn't have been altogether surprised if a Character turned out to be a Character's understudy - unfortunately this was the real world due to the indisposition of Ian MacDiarmid. But, after a couple of nervous moments early on, the production flowed with dark power and invention. The second half was a tour de force, constantly challenging you to reappraise the nature of the dramatic form whilst never neglecting that the primary role of theatre is to entertain. And the scene when the girl falls in the water - the tension in the audience is palpable. How did they do that?? - Robbie | 23 Sep 08 |
| I've always loved this play and I love the work of the co-adapter / director of this revival, so I was possibly over-excited at the outset. How much of my disappointment at the interval was due to Ian MacDairmid's under-cast and under-prepared understudy I don't know - it was certainly clunky and just didn't flow well; hardly a trademark of Rupert Gould. The second part turned out to be a masterpiece of staging (unaffected by the understudy as he hardly speaks), which redeemed the evening somewhat. When you see that slip fall out of the programme you normally groan but ultimately leave the theatre pleasantly surprised. On this occasion, I left annoyed that the producers hadn't properly planned for the illness of the actor in such a pivotal role. Two stars for the first part and five for the second. - Gareth James | 19 Sep 08 |
