Reader Reviews
A Month in the Country (Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | Oh dear. I suppose we have to put up with opinionated pseudo-critics like "oncewas12", but you don't have to be a stevedore on the Clyde to recognise that the splendid James McArdle is no geordie, but from Glasgow - via RADA! - JC | 04 Oct 10 |
| Disappointing overall. Great set (if overblown - tree branches over almost all the theatre roof!), nice costumes, some good cameos. But the Friel rewrite and the direction leaves the play in some disarray - is it comedy, tragedy, bits of anything? so we get lots of silly modern 'doctor, doctor' jokes, then wild melodramatics from Janie Dee, then servants chasing each other round the furniture. At one monment we have formal soliloquies, then casual 20th century colloquialisms, sometimes jarring. First half is 10 minutes too long for modern comfort. But centrally, the story just does not ring these days - Dee is supposedly mad about McCardle, but we are given no development of this and few reasons - apart from her simply being a silly superficial woman - as he is gauche and gangling, with a strange geordie (?) accent at times. Its not easy to care about her, if indeed we are supposed to do so. Indeed, few characters come over as likeable (maybe that was the intention), and the end comes as a relief. I like Janie Dee, but the way her part has emerged takes away the central foundation that Bergman and Mirren and others were able to create in the role. Most of all though, its pretty boring..... - Oncewas12 | 01 Oct 10 |
