This is a real treat - a kaleidescopic nad surreal masterpiece that manages to have heart and soul. Based on Powell and Pressburger's innovative film masterpiece this production uses Aerial work, choreography, projections and live music and song to create teh forties mood. The two lead performances are astonishing teh production is very funny and moving. Emma rice has done a fantastic job adapting and directing this piece and has created something new for the stage. You laugh, cry ,think and are moved - what more could you ask for? Awesome - Kneehigh are the new complicite! - Tim Armitage
11 Jun 07
I went to see this with an open mind and now regret the loss of two hours from my life! No one seems to mention the technical failure of this show, I don't mean the set etc which worked perfectly well but the soundscape! The almost constant 'back' music covers most of the dialog even though there are obvious mike leads taped to the nape of everyones neck and lyrics are blurred to the point of being inaudible. This, added to the fact that I didn't give a damn about any of the characters - who thought that perfomance by 'Harold' should be on the NT stage, it would have embarrased Bridlington? - and the bikes were simply annoying and overused. What on earth made Nick Nytner go to bat for this plucked turkey??? - Another dead old man
08 Jun 07
Well, I'm more with the 'Sunday ladies' than the 'Old white men', though it's certainly not up to Kneehigh's usual magical standard. I loved the last 30 minutes, but it took a long 90 minutes to get there. If only they had shaved off 30 minutes.....still, the usual Kneehigh inventiveness is there - the use of bicycles and hospital beds in particular - and who can regret going to a show with a dead Norwegian magician who flys and where Shakespeare's ruffles are inflated white rubber gloves! Douglas commands the difficult Olivier stage better than most but all the other central performances are very good. Definately worth seeing. - Gareth James
08 Jun 07
I'm amazed at all the vitriol here. I loved this production--endlessly inventive, fresh, exhilarating. I'd never seen the film before, but watched it a couple of weeks ago, and found it tedious, wooden, and completely uncharming. So, as far as I was concerned, Kneehigh was perfectly free to do whatever they wanted with it. No one should go to this expecting a replication of the original (thank heavens, say I), but on its own terms I thought it was first-rate. - Charles
06 Jun 07
Probably the worst evening I have ever spent in the theatre. Tedious, pretentious, self-regarding and, in its final stages, offensive. The adolescent mentality of the adaptors was totally unable to comprehend the qualities of the original and the complexities of the period from which it sprung. If my companion had not been grimly determined to sit it out to the end I would have walked out half way through and thus been spared the excruciating scene in which a Coventry blitz victim blamed Peter Carter for the bombing of Dresden (yes, really). Avoid, and spend your money on the DVD instead. - Will H
01 Jun 07
It appears to have all been said here already, but here's my two peneth anyway. I gave 2 stars, for and out of generosity, to the stage hands who manage the complex staging and flying in this production, and also kept my waning interest going in this otherwise mismash of a show. If there had been an interval I would have left as I am sure half the audience would too. I saw the film many years ago, and although my memory is stretched, the production bears little resemblence to the original. It is in short a travesty. And again I find myself asking how it got this far. The answer is very simple. Mr Hytner has been in New York, again, trying to get another of his pet projects in the running for a Tony. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be this time as the otherwise stunning NY production of Coram Boy (better than the NTs) had to close early. So so reviews meant not enough Broadway punters wanted to risk there hard earned $s. Anyway, now that's over Nick get yourself back to your full time job as the "Conductor" of the NT and sort this mess out! - rds
01 Jun 07
£10 that I'll never get back.
It's one of my favourite films of all time but this was a shoddy mess. I'd like to describe it as interesting but it's more pitiful.
That anyone could even consider substituting the Marius Goring version of the Conductor with the simpering moron that this version presents shows you how deeply flawed this is.
Spend your £10 on the DVD and have a faar more entertaining evening at home.
AVOID! - QuincyMD
30 May 07
hugely enjoyable - as long as you haven't seen the film.
which most of the population hasn't.
- j
29 May 07
A deeply disappointing evening, from which the magic and delight of a classic film is almost entirely absent (the only exceptions being straight transpositions from the original). The directors aim for romance, comedy, tragedy and musicality: sadly, they fail on all counts. Douglas Hodge's brave attempt to rescue a truthful performance from the wreckage of the script is the sole redeeming feature - hence a single star. Not worth even £10 and 140 minutes of your time. Rent the film instead. - Stuart
28 May 07
Iloved the film and I loved this show as well. Wisely the adaptors did not seek to reproduce the film and created an original piece of theatre while retaining the heart of Powell and Pressburger's story. Having read the damning review from Mr De Jong in the Standard I went along with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The relationship between June and Peter was genuinely passionate and moving. After a series of theatrical miscastings (Titus Andronicus, Sky Masterson) Douglas Hodge was back on form and perfectly cast as Frank. I loved the energy of the rest of the company. It was my first visit to a Kneehigh production and I regret that I missed the others. On the night I went the audience reaction was enthusiastic and you could sense genuine enjoyment. If you were in two minds about going to see this ignore the "naysayers" and book your tickets. The best £10 I have spent for a long time! - Diane
26 May 07
Spectacular and inventive, Emma Rice's boldly conceived staging of the classic film is enjoyable if overlong and occasionally wilfully confusing. I liked much of the aerial work and the projections, although the musical numbers and choreography really outstay their welcome. Despite my reservations, it is still lovely to see a piece that delights in the possibilities of live theatre, and nowhere but the National would have the resources or space to mount it on this scale. - ajh
19 May 07
I was looking forward to seeing this but unfortunately wish now I had never gone. Avoid at all costs if you are expecting the film on stage. - Ivor
17 May 07
I would strongly advise anyone who has seen and been deeply moved by the film and it's fine feelings, emotion and humour, avoid this production at all costs. Sex has replaced love and real emotion and the play tries to drive home a patronising anti-war message into a storyline that was originally created to provide hope and comfort to film goers who had only just emerged from the brutal ravages of war.
The musical interludes seem pointless time fillers that have nothing to do with the plot. The ending was the worst of this terrible production, where the nightly deciding of Peter Carter's fate rests on the toss of a coin. He died at the end of the show I went to see and thus the hope and possibility of a fair and just afterlife that placed a high value on love was stolen from me.
I suspect the only reason there was no interval in this two and a half hour production was because of a deep fear that most of the audience would not return for a second half! - Laura
16 May 07
Excellent production, once more the National break out from dull retreads and thankfully so. Visually exciting and, ultimately, moving. - Paul H
14 May 07
Wonderful music with excellent new singer leading the band that helps comment upon and move the plot along with great verve. The pieces did not all sound the same as the previous commentator thought. - Anthony
14 May 07
Hard to imagine a more incoherent and unfocussed jumble of a production than the National Theatre's production of A Matter of Life and Death. The worst form of self-absorbed and self-regarding theatre has repetitive dangling from ropes, endless formations of beds and clever images created by cycling nurses but no tension and no characterisation to draw any empathy from an audience. It is all style and no substance.
The changes to the Powell and Pressburger film are all fair game for a stage adaptation that does not claim to be a faithful reproduction of the film. The chance ending of whether Peter lives or dies is entirely in keeping with the element of chance that is central in the original story. But changing the finesse of Marius Goring's French Conductor in the movie to a pantomime, excruciatingly unfunny Norwegian Illusionist played by Gisli Orn Gardarsson was disastrous. Also the heavy -handed inclusion of Dresden bomb victims into the ending drew wriggles of embarrassment from those sitting around me. This had all the impact of a heavy handed piece of Theatre-in-Education company hauling a history lesson around 3rd year classes in secondary schools.
Performances were deeply uneven. Tristan Sturrock and Lynsey Marshal as Peter and June were never given the chance to build up any momentum in their characters. Infuriatingly at a moment when some insight and depth seemed to appear in the relationship it was interrupted by dangling ropes or even worse dances numbers and songs. How Stu Barker worked trough such a range of musical styles from Rap to South American to Jazz and made them all sound the same was something to hear. An extraordinary moment came when the cleverly devised image of the table tennis match between Frank and June turned into a ballet of the cotton buds with huge sticks with white balls being swung around the stage like the workshops that Theatre De Complicite used to run.
In the midst of all this stood the dignified Douglas Hodge, occasionally fighting through the mess to create glimpses of character that we might feel something for and relate to.
- Malcolm
