Did the critics go to war on A Pacifist's Guide…?
Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage
★★★★
"There aren't many musicals about cancer. But then there aren't many musicals, or plays come to that, as original in both form and content as this one."
"I was impressed by the way the production manages to find physical embodiments of agony and incomprehension: the doctor's diagnosis becomes a wall of distorted sound you are too panicked to hear; felled by grief Emma crawls around the room."
"In the end, you are both crying and humming the songs. Which is about as good a recommendation for a musical on any subject as I can think of."
Michael Billington, The Guardian
★★★
"For much of its length, this show offers a robust demystification of its subject. Only in its later stages does it turn from a piece of theatre into a dubious form of group therapy."
"Clearly the point of the show is to sabotage cliched responses to cancer: not just the vocabulary of 'struggle' that surrounds it but also, as one character says, the 'aggressive sorrow' and special 'cancer face', assumed by friends."
"Kimmings herself directs with great verve and there are good performances from Amanda Hadingue as the distressed single mum, Golda Rosheuvel as the miracle-seeking Laura, Rose Shalloo as the teenager facing genetic issues and Naana Agyei-Ampadu as a tough American who wisecracks her way through trouble. "
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard
★★
"Bryony Kimmings says she wants to get us talking about the tough stuff, about illness and death. This is, of course, both commendable and useful, but the piece strays disappointingly far from these noble aims, culminating in a misguidedly meta-theatrical second half that descends into a mire of mawkish sentimentality and self-indulgence. I was squirming by the end."
"Tom Parkinson’s music is unmemorable and is all but jettisoned after the interval in favour of a wearying number of pre-recorded voiceovers from Kimmings herself to her actors."
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out
★★★
"This angry, funny, uneven and eventually devastating musical about cancer from Complicte and performance artist Bryony Kimmings has as moving a last 15 minutes as you can imagine."
"The songs, though stylistically all over the shop, are strong, and there’s some particularly formidable lung power from Naana Agyei-Ampadu and Golda Rosheuvel."
"If it was glossier it might be mawkish, but it’s here that Kimmings and Lobel’s DIY roots show through – it feels like a healing, empowering art project that really has something to say, confronting the prosaic, oft-concealed reality of life with cancer head-on. "
Mark Shenton, The Stage
★★★★
"This is [Kimmings'] biggest piece to date. It is intentionally discomforting as it takes us to places we'd rather not visit among 'the kingdom of the sick.'"
"A single mother Emma, bringing her baby Owen for treatment, provides a pivotal focus; there's also a young man with testicular cancer, being urged to bank his sperm, a man with lung cancer who is still smoking and a woman who is running out of treatment options and being encouraged to look at hospice care. "
"To call the show brave would risk patronising its characters, and that's the last thing they need. Instead, they just need us to be there, and to be honest."
"It's a universal story – and the show is a tender and healing shared experience."
A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer runs in the Dorfman, National Theatre until 29 November.
