Reader Reviews
Women Beware Women (Olivier (National Theatre), West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | Another crude interpretation by the National (see Melly Still's Revenger's Tragedy for details). Marianne Elliot is becoming predictable: black and silver glittering set - tick red velvet dress / red cardinal - tick cold white backlighting - tick signposted performances - tick any sexual reference accompanied by groin-thrusting - tick Ok, it's a pretty crude play, but we never understand why anyone is doing anything, and the wildly inconsistent set / costume / music design clarifies nothing. - dgr1 | 07 Jun 10 |
| Poor direction and miscasting makes this production of a fascinating play a sluggish bore. Simply spinning the revolve like a top is not good enough. Harriet Walter (and the other professionals in the cast) deserves a lot better. - Coral | 28 May 10 |
| I am surprised by the number of negative comments here. I found the production visually stunning, funny, beautifully acted by the whole cast, and - above all - asolutely gripping. I was on the edge of my seat throughout. The climactic killing spree was brilliantly choreographed. - Rose | 21 May 10 |
| Middleton's Revengers Tragedy was a triumph of dedcadence and convoluted plotting but WBW doesn't work as well. Most of the acting is superb and it looks wonderful in an updated setting but at times it moves too slowly and there is a massive problem within the story. Either my attention wandered or the production failed to make it clear, but the motivation of the wronged Bianca makes absolutely no sense. After apparently swearing revenge after being raped by the Duke she seems happy to marry him only ti finally act against an apparently blameless character. Perhaps it's my fault for not paying attention properly but it made the otherwise brilliantly staged finale unnecessarily confusing. - David Baxter | 20 May 10 |
| A good play but a bad production! The entire first act was just poor. Leantio is a character full of heart and emotional range but is played like pinnochio! Terrible, just a shallow portrayal by samuel barnett. There were the odd good scenes like the ward trying to look up the skirt of his wife to be and the end murder choreography is well done. But on the whole the actors really dont get to the heart of the characters and use the langauge to the full. - peter g | 14 May 10 |
| The flat language of the Middleton text and the slow pace combine to make a production that really only captures the imagination visually. One wonders why this obviously cynical and depressing play is still being staged. There are no sympathetic characters and it's not as if we need reminding that people often act in a venal and destructive fashion. Repeating key lines as song in an occasional jazz-cafe excursion is gratingly heavy-handed and the sex scenes, where at least the staging gives an opportunity to go over the top in the manner of the much more satisfying production of "The Revenger's Tragedy" a year or so ago, are muted and half-hearted. And WHY on earth is the Ward played as bisexual? Uh? - Donald Pleasaunce | 09 May 10 |
| This is a long three hours! Unlike his contemporary Shakespeare, Middleton doesn’t have the richness of verse, depth of characterisation or profusion of sub-plots to sustain a long evening. Though there is still a certain resonance today, it’s still surprising that 2nd division Elizabethan fare like this is being revived after almost 400 years. A bank clerk rather implausibly bags a beautiful rich wife only to find she’s soon ‘requisitioned’ by the Duke. Another beauty is offered in marriage to a fool and abused by her uncle. Her evil aunt colluded with both. Of course, it all ends in tears with an unfeasibly high body count! The pace of the first 80 minutes really is slow and even though it picks up in the second half, I couldn’t really recover my spirits. 15 minutes before the end it seems like they thought ‘well, we’ve got a lot of plot to cover and lots of people to kill off with little time left, so we’d better get a move on’ because these last 15 minutes are an extraordinary choreographed surreal pageant to jazz accompaniment that seems to come from a different play altogether. I liked Les Brotherston’s set and costumes, but I’m not sure the jazz ‘soundtrack’ really works and I can’t say any of the performances caught my imagination. We’ve come to expect more from director Marianne Elliott, and I’m afraid I left disappointed. - Gareth James | 06 May 10 |
| Poor acting (except Livia) Poor staging e.g the Duke first sees the girl from behind the set! National can and must do better - sj | 04 May 10 |
| Saw this last night and thought it absolutely tremendous, and I thought the masque at the end really worked. Cast was very good with a mix of newcomers easy on the eye (Nick Blood particularly) and seasoned thesps (great to see Harriet Walter). The National seems to be on a bit of a roll recently. - addicted to theatre | 30 Apr 10 |
| Fully agree that Samuel Barnett is miscast and lacks credibility in his apparent ability to attract two forceful and beautiful women. Overall, however, I found the production rivetting and extremely well staged. Some of the lines are absolutely hilarious and I saw no-one leaving at half time in the Circle ! - dch | 30 Apr 10 |
| Although sumptious and well acted overall a confusing evening. For a first time viewer of the play there was far to much distraction to be able to follow this complex plot. By the time the pot smoking angels (or flying monkeys) came on for the blood bath at the end I was both dizzy from the revolving set and totally confused on who was who or why the slaughter was occuring. Last night there were several empty seats in the Oliver for Act 2 that had been occupied for Act 1 so I was not the only bemused audience member - TJO | 30 Apr 10 |
| This is an absolute mess. Marianne Elliot's production looks extremely handsome and glossy but, in the wide open spaces of the Olivier, the more shocking and ambiguous elements of this riproaring piece register very blandly. Also, there is a fatal lack of cohesion in acting style: too often characters seem to be in different plays from each other. Harry Melling's buffoonish Ward may be very funny but it is a turn not a fully fleshed performance, and the costuming and direction of him and his sidekick Sordidio as the kind of boyz one sees in Old Compton Street is crude and obvious. That fine actor Samuel Barnett is completely miscast as the lowly clerk with a penchant for rich women; Barnett comes across as too sensitive, too sweet and far too young to convince. Harriet Walter's scheming Livia is a predictably strong and stylish performance although for me she lacks the sexual attack an actor such as, say, Sally Dexter might bring. Raymond Coulthard is utterly superb as her brother however and both Vanessa Kirby and Lauren O'Neil make impressive South Bank debuts as the ingenues. Arthur Pita's final act ballet where the story sorts itself out and features multiple murders is confusing and enervating to watch. All in all, this is a disappointing and only fitfully successful revival. - ajh | 29 Apr 10 |
