Critics assess Miller premiere The Hook

Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage

★★★

"The background story of The Hook, an unfinished, unproduced screenplay, is actually more interesting than the play itself"

"the piece is curiously devoid of poetry or inflamed rhetoric of any kind, although Jamie Sives makes of Marty a tortured martyr to his own integrity."

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

★★★

"Unfortunately, watching this strangely laboured drama, which plods rather than powers along"

"Though the shortish (two hour) evening excels at moody atmospherics, abounding with haze, it doesn’t build a head of steam."

"this world premiere is a useful deed and a welcome curiosity but it’s not the big coup we had hoped for in the Miller centenary year."

Heather Neill, The Stage

★★★★

"all the fierce moral intensity of early Miller is here, embodied in a skilful production, strong on set design and lighting, with, at its centre, a full-bodied performance by Jamie Sives as Marty Ferrara"

Paul Taylor, Independent

★★★★

"[The Hook is] now brought to gripping, turbulent life in James Dacre's excellent ensemble production"

"Jamie Sives is wonderfully driven as Marty Ferrara"

"It's not an overly subtle piece but it's certainly inspiring"

Sarah Hemming, Financial Times

★★★★

"This is a blazingly angry drama about a man of integrity who stands up to the system"

"in his central protagonist, Marty Ferrara (inspired by a real-life whistleblower), Miller creates an immensely attractive character"

"It certainly won’t vie with Miller’s greatest plays. But this is still a passionate piece of theatre and it feels all too topical."

The Hook runs at the Royal & Derngate until 27 June and at the Liverpool Everyman from 1 – 25 July.