The Cut

Synopsis

The play revolves around an ordinary man with a shocking secret. At home, he is a loving husband and father. But at work, he administers the Cut. In a society sickened by his profession, he struggles with his conscience and longs to tell the truth. Contains strong language

Our Review:

1 March 2006

Is there currently a more versatile or compelling actor on the London stage than Ian McKellen? Straight from the exuberant, over-the-top, cross-dressing camp of his panto dame turn as Widow Twanky in the return of Aladdin at the Old Vic, he now segues directly to a far more sober, sinister mode in The Cut, Mark Ravenhill’s bleak (and rather oblique) new play at the Donmar Warehouse.

Two nights before the opening of this production, McKellen deservedly took this year’s Laurence Olivier special award for lifetime achievement, and was presented with it by the director of this production Michael Grandage, who said that during rehearsals the actor became affectionately dubbed “the king of logic”, since he “cannot proceed until everything has been logically and truthfully worked through.”

Rehearsals can only have been a slow and painful process in that case, since Ravenhill’s play is full of questions but few answers. Like a Pinter puzzle tha...

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Latest User Review

213.86.133.215) - 23 March 2006:

A frustrating play given that the acting and the rest of the production are superb. Ian McKellan in an award winning performance?...

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