Riflemind

Synopsis

Twenty years after their frontman, John, walked off stage for good, the iconic rock band Riflemind are set to get together again. For John , a reunion might be his second chance; for his wife Lynn , it could be the end of the world as she knows it ... As the band descends upon John's country manor, one weekend fast becomes the ultimate test of talent, friendship and loyalty.

Our Review:

19 September 2008

A compendium of rock clichés, or a searing reality check on a band re-forming in their encroaching middle-age to plug back into the big money concert market? Andrew Upton – whose blistering version of Gorky’s Philistines was a National Theatre highlight last year – has talked the talk and walked the walk in his new play (first seen at the Wharf Theatre in Sydney last October) but the end result is a bit of a dog’s dinner.

Who cares, frankly, about the soul-searching, dead-of-night meanderings of a quartet of deeply unappetising blokes who could pluck a few chords and batter themselves into oblivion on booze and drugs? I thought I might, at first, as John Hannah’s spindly Scottish songwriter spews a rhythmic love poem that will come back with full studio treatment at the end of the play.

And could Philip Seymour Hoffman’s production – which marks the first fruit of a three-way producing collaboration between his own LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York, the Sy...

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Latest User Review

martin b - 11 October 2008:

How high can you rate a play that has good actors trying their hardest against a backdrop of poor dialogue and a deeply uninvolving moribund story? I don't think this production is long for this world - what a waste of great acting talent....

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