Dies on its feet as you watch it -desperate to put them out of their misery - let them both drown in the opening scene and then we can go home without all the pseudo esoteric navel gazing!
- a theatre lover
16 May 11
Stunned this has had such good reviews. It's good for insomniacs perhaps. - sam
16 May 11
Brilliant production that could almost do without the tedious text. It is like dance, quite stunning. - Faz
16 May 11
To echo the comments of some of the other dissapointed reviewers this felt like the longest 70 minutes of theatre I have ever endured. The staging appeared exciting as we sat waiting for the show to start but after watching the two actors stand still for 10 minutes I began to worry this was going to be difficult to enjoy. I really tried to look for the best and be open minded but between the repetative, truncated dialogue and complete lack of a story to connect with there really was nothing for me. As I walked down the stairs to exit everyone was in silence when I overheard a couple comment "I can't say what I think until we're outside", yes I think everyone was shocked by the short coming of this piece but was too afraid to stand up to the critics 5* reviews.
PS. My girlfriend was simply speechless as we actaully travelled over an hour to come and see this for the second time having arrived 10 minutes late the week before. - Ryan
14 May 11
Janine, cynicism is the death of theatre, to use the quote 'polish a turd' is equally horrendous. You obviously have some deep hatred of this play and you are obviously entitled to your own opinion, I am open minded, its just that I havent read a relevant argument of why Jon Fosse's writing is, to use a quote 'a turd', Ive just read a load of cynical, very happy with itself clap trap. - man
13 May 11
Set was nice - loads of cash spent on the machine. But, really, why..? Pretentious, yeh I agree. Flat. Two actors doing different things from each other style-wise. These 5 star reviews are a case of emperor's new clothes again... Really - why? I shouldn't have to ask this for something with an obvious budget. It was the kind of thing you do in the first year of drama school till you get over yourself. - Velma
13 May 11
Man - "For someone to simply write dire is short minded and horrendously cynical"
Having paid my money and sat through the show (and was moved from my pre-booked seat to make way for a critic) I feel I am entitled to have an opinion on the show. I'm sorry it does not match your opinion for the show but for me it was dire. I did not find the script 'poetic', while the sparseness could be used to great effect, here it comes across as just poor writing. Perhaps it is you who should be more open minded about the critics who found it 'a bit too much' and other audience members who hated it!
- Janie
13 May 11
I would actually give this four but thought the five would bump up the average viewer rating. This is why Jon Fosse is amazing, people hate him and I can see why but I dont agree with the cynics at all. His work is poetic, thought provoking, blunt. It forces you to come to your own conclusions, the poetry takes you to the wilds of nature. This is a stunning production that completely moved me, which I am finding a rare thing in the London teatre. The acting is superb and the production stunning. Fosse is a true artist and a bit too much for the critics, I like the fact that Coveny has just snubbed the writing. For someone to simply write dire is short minded and horrendously cynical. Go and watch, make up your own mind. - Man
13 May 11
Thought provoking and never dull. Worth coming for the acting alone. Now need to read the text again! - Susannah
13 May 11
Just one word for this .... dire - Janie
12 May 11
Something really different and thought provoking. Chatted for ages about it afterwards. Really recommend it - J Grand
11 May 11
Fantastic and thoroughly committed acting (which hasn't been mentioned nearly enough), beautiful set, haunting and evocative dialogue, and a well constructed narrative. A brave production by M.Chereau. And can everyone please stop critiquing the Actors natural appearance. It's what they do with it that is of interest. - Lucy
11 May 11
Having finally ditched the unallocated seating the Young Vic has found a new way to irritate me with one of the most pointless and pretentious plays I have had the misfortune to endure - pseudo Beckett without the dark humour. The involvement of Simon Stephens should have warned me off but at least the "boat" was clever. On top of all that the running time was longer than publicised (and felt like an eternity) so I missed ny intended train! - David Baxter
11 May 11
Full credit to 2 fine actors working within a minimalist setting in a play that takes pretension to new depths. The little boat is well conceived and orchestrated and provides the only excitement of the rather short piece throughout most of which the audience is trying to work out what is going on.
Oh for Beckett's wonderful nihilistic humour to enliven this rather dull little offering. "I am the Wind" mutters one of the characters a couple of times towards the end. No, my friend, you are just hot air. - michael martin
11 May 11
Roger Water's is in London today presenting "The Wall" at the O2 Arena, the story of how he built a wall between himself and other people, to protect himself, and then ultimately tore it down because it did more harm than good. This feels like the same story told in miniature, with one startling difference - when the wall between The One and The Other eventually comes down, The One just evaporates into the wind. Like Pink in "The Wall", The One hates "the noise" of life and has retreated from society. The Other tries to save The One from his isolation, going so far as to clothe him and join him on a sailing trip, but The One's inner isolation proves so troubling that The Other becomes increasingly more agitated, frightened and disturbed.
Tom Brooke is spooky and terrifying as The One, and Jack Laskey is empathetic and likeable as The Other. The mesmeric sparse production, melding swaying vistas of water with oddly calm music (as opposed to vistas of Waters and prog rock), brilliantly conveys how the disturbing tides of our own minds shape the possibility or impossibility of attaining some level of happiness. - Steve
11 May 11
Well all I can say is that this makes Simon Stephen's earlier Wastwater seem clear and concise in comparison. Muddled, overlong and pretentious. The longest 70mins I've spent in a theatre in a very long time. - Paul
11 May 11
Will be in the running for worst play of the year unless the rest of the year takes a dramatic downturn.
Avoid this travesty at all costs - Iain
11 May 11
If only this play had been 70 minutes shorter. What a load of utter rubbish. Please avoid it like the plague unless you delight in pretentious and pointless theatre. The actors did their best, but as the old saying goes ... 'you can't polish a turd'. - Janine
11 May 11
Geoffrey Rae and Pedro either work for the Young Vic or were commenting on a different play. This play is so bad, I can't believe it has actually been produced. Ideally I'd have liked to have given it O stars. Congrats to the two actors though for making the effort. Shockingly dull, pretentious and badly written. - James
11 May 11
This is possibly the worst piece of theatre I've ever seen. It is also the first time I've felt sorry for the poor actors having to try and perform such utter dross. It is clearly evident that Jack Laskey has no idea what is going on, or who is character is, and has the misfortune of just slowly repeating the other characters lines. I just feel bad that he has to endure it every night for a whole month. I feel I got off lightly. I would highly recommend not wasting any money seeing this play. - Malcolm M
11 May 11
Theatre magic of a high order. A journey into the depths of depression leading to tragedy but not without humour and directed, designed and acted to perfection. I'll go again. - Geoffrey Rae
11 May 11
How did this ever escape - as one of the players says "I have something ti say to you -but I don't know what it is" and that sums up this play.
What is at fault is the appalling translation from the french and the fact that this should not be a stage piece -leave it where it should be- as a film! - Dave J
11 May 11
The best thing about this play is that it’s only 70 minutes long; though it did feel twice as long at the time. It’s pretentious and dull with the most banal dialogue. I think it might be about depression, but I don’t really care. I’m more concerned about the amount of my life I wasted at the Young Vic last night.
There is a shallow covering of water in the performing area and you can see how it will rise from the watermark left by previous performances. A man is lifted in silence by another. What follows in a circular storyline – well, without a story, as it happens – which is obtuse and pointless. It has nothing to say and nowhere to go.
There is some striking visual imagery, particularly when a platform rises (as does the water) and moves to represent a boat at sea. There are two fine young actors who rise to the physical demands of the piece but have no lines worth saying.
As this performance had become the press night since I booked it, I was asked to move seats so that a paid critic’s insistence on an aisle seat could be accommodated. As a thank you, I was given a copy of the play – never has a gift seemed so pointless!
Avoid. - Gareth James
11 May 11
Nothing pretentious about this play. Honest to within an inch of drowning. Go see! - Pedro
11 May 11
Well, I have read good things about Mr Fosse, but this play must have definitely lost something in the translation and for that the blame must fall squarely upon the shoulders of Simon Stephens the translator. The characters deliver, their seemingly interminable lines, so monotonously that it was, after a very short while, all I could do to stop myself jumping into the watery depths that made up the set and drown too. For watery depths is what the Young Vic have created for the stage and, in their questionable wisdom, have lavished much money upon this dubious play. It isn't good when a set carries the show, but that is what's happened here. Jon Fosse the Norwegian writer, who has been voted in the Daily Telegraph's poll, 83 out of 100, in their list of the top 100 living geniuses?! Yes, well I know that is baffling I have to admit and certainly open to serious question. What pisses me off is that I really had high hopes for this play but, instead, it floundered and on the rocks of its own hideous pretentiousness.
- rds
