This play has had some pretty good reviews, and I certainly rate David Hare. However, I did not feel that this was a fully rounded play, in particular the second act just seemed to lose focus, it is well acted and has some good moments but it just didn't work for me. - CAA
14 Jan 09
This is David Hare's best play for some time. It's not up there with the great 'state of the nation' plays and, as with Stuff Happens and The Permanent Way, he loses credibility by sacrificing objectivity. Even though it's deeply cynical and a rather depressing (though probably true) comment on our times, it's a thought provoking piece which is beautifully staged and extremely well acted. I only wish he wouldn't hide behind the statement that it's all fiction; it's littered with snippets of / ideas derived from real events and it's characters are without question derived (at least in part) from real people. Still, it's a decent new play at the National and is to be welcomed. - Gareth James
14 Jan 09
Usually when I don't like something I can still see why it clicks with some people but in this case I'm genuinely mystified by the praise from the WOS reviewer and some of the posters below. Yes there's a very vocal anti-Hare contingent who feel that, as Ken Campbell once predicted, Hare has run out of steam. I've never aligned myself with this body of opinion and have enjoyed recent offerings such as Permanent Way, Stuff Happens and Vertical Hour. But despite trying, I couldn't find anything to recommend Gethsemane. Not one single thing. Like one of the previous posters, I found every character utterly unbelievable and totally non-convincing. Some good actors do their best with the transparently thin material but there's a limit to their ability to conjure substance where there is none. I'm sure there's a solid play to be had from the notion of shady activities in party fundraising, but this isn't it. After a while, it got embarrassing. The bar scene with the adviser, the teacher/busker and the journalist made me feel Hare had hit a murky low. The guy who'd jumped ship from the Home Office to work for the fundraiser came across a gabbling, idiotic non-character. The drumming PM was appallingly written and played, with Anthony Calf repeatedly doing a slow, narrow-eyed head turn at the end of lines, in an apparent attempt to make the character seem sinister. It merely looked like something he'd dug out of a drama school's dustbin. Some of what was going on in front of me was worse than am-dram. The people calling it neat, incisive and 'crisp' (!) must have been hypnotised. This is political drama Janet & John style. No other writer would have had this limp nonsense even considered for staging. The time has come for the NT to hand scripts back to Hare and say sorry David, this is far off your best work, try again. We badly needed someone to have said it to him on this occasion. Meanwhile, those who really think this play is incisive need to take a crash course in political drama. - Sycamore Flint
12 Jan 09
I like a few others in the theatre was nodding off during the first half of this over long play which needs trimming in quite a few places. Basically the same sort of average play from Hare which did not tell the audience anything new about the corruption in government. If you must see it do but do not be dissapointed if you miss this one. - ILS
11 Jan 09
First class acting with a crisp script. An intelligent play neatly and decisively digging at the hypocrisy of the bullying press. Remember how they lambasted poor Estelle Morris because of her dress sense! I saw August Osage County earlier this week and both plays together encapsulate all that is wonderful about The National Theatre. It is so heart-warming to see both productions sold-out and yet there are always day-tickets for the (us) earlybirds. - Carrie
11 Jan 09
His best since....dare I say it...PLENTY - joesmith
23 Dec 08
unbelievable, stupid characters meandering across the stage mouthing occasional hare aphorisms. for two and a half hours. ugh - fred
16 Dec 08
Hell hath no fury like an old lefty scorned as David Hare turns his attention to the hypocracy and corruption of the Blair government. Gethsemane feels like it was written by a New Labour insider and, appallingly, nothing seems implausible (probably because this is clearly not pure fiction as Hare claims) and one early scene presges the real Home Secretary's possible involvement in the Damien Green scandal. Gethsemane is played with chilling realism by a brilliant cast and is the National's second great political play of the year after Never So Good. I will also cherish the silence which followed the closing sounds of one of Beethoven's most beautiful sonatas. Gethsemane brings home the greatest tragedy of New Labour's cynicism and contempt for the voting public - the erosion of any remaining trust in the motives of our political masters. This is an enetrtaining but also important play, the first great State of the Nation play this century.
- David Baxter
09 Dec 08
A neat, incisive play which, despite the sudden and unexpected recent economic downturn, has many relevant contemporary echoes. But the issues are just a little too black-and-white. Politicians, of course, come out of it badly, and journalists far worse. A teenage girl and an ex-teacher are presented as the only characters with either any ideals or any realisation of what is really happening around them. But, as we know, events take unexpected turns in the political world, and when the Home Secretary, Meredith Guest (Tamsin Greig) says that she went into politics 'to make a difference', I think we should believe her. Nicola Walker as the disillusioned teacher now busking at Baron's Court Station is outstanding in an accomplished cast. Howard Davies's direction is crisp and clean, and the set design by the genius Bob Crowley is, as ever, inspired. - sc
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