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Review Round-up: Overwhelming Dramatic Debut

Out of Joint’s Max Stafford-Clark directs the world premiere of JT Rogers’ The Overwhelming at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre (See News, 15 Feb 2006). The production, which opened on 17 May 2006 (previews from 9 May), marks the UK debut for American dramatist Rogers.

Set in Rwanda in early 1994, Jack Exley (played by Matthew Marsh) uproots his family from Illinois to research a book, and tragedy strikes. As well as Marsh, the cast includes Jude Akuwudike, William Armstrong, Babou Ceesay, Chipo Chung, Nick Fletcher, Andrew Garfield, Tanya Moodie, Lucian Msamati, Adura ONashile and Danny Sapani.

Critics were drawn into the days leading up to the Rwandan genocide in Stafford-Clark’s “powerful” production and agreed that while it has its faults, The Overwhelming makes important points about world affairs. The production continues in rep until September when it embarks on a five-week tour, visiting Oxford, Leeds, Southampton, Liverpool and Manchester, where it concludes on 7 October.

Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard - De Jongh was impressed with the “deftly effective and powerfully acted production” which “achieves the emotional impact that TV news bulletins and newspapers rarely manage.” The play’s “characterising sense of speed, fluidity and anxiety, as hotel room gives way to hospital office or market place, is beautifully conveyed… The finale, with its emblematic coup de theatre, brings this war into close, ghastly focus. The Overwhelming gives political theatre serious allure.”

- by Caroline Ansdell

Related Content

Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	The Overwhelming Listing Page

Internal Links
	Overwhelming - 18th May 2006 reviews