Critics enjoy 'stylish, slick and entertaining' Motherf**ker with the Hat

Matt Trueman, WhatsOnStage

★★★★

"Adly Guirgis writes with a peppery comic flair: all plosive apoplexy and somersaulting swearwords."

"It's never hectoring, though, and Adly Guirgis entertains first and foremost. His excellent (and largely authentic) cast have plenty to play with"

"Chavira is unshowily excellent"

Dominic Maxwell, The Times

★★★★

"Stephen Adly Guirgis’s careening comedy about love and addiction is really something to shout about"

"there is nothing bland in any of the 100-odd minutes of Indhu Rubasingham‘s raucous yet precise-tooled production, which gets my vote as the biggest blast in Rufus Norris’s National Theatre tenure so far"

"[Adly Guirgis] gives us fascinating, flawed, articulate characters in service to and wrestling with their desires."

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

★★★★

"director Indhu Rubasingham makes it fit snugly in. She’s right, though, to keep her stylish, slick and entertaining production bowling along for an hour and 45 minutes without an interval."

"Were the evening to draw breath, we might notice that, despite the virtuoso verbals, it’s not got a huge amount to say for itself."

"The cast are just right for the parts"

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out

★★★

"Making her very welcome NT debut, director Indhu Rubasingham can’t compete with that sort of celebrity firepower for this enjoyable UK premiere. But she’s certainly scored a minor coup in prevailing upon Equity to allow her to cast all-American actors in this gleefully obnoxious comedy"

"The show’s anchor is Ricardo Chavira… He’s the best thing here as Jackie"

"you can see that Guirgis wants his characters to come across as relatably human under all the bluster. But the play doesn’t earn it, and when it ends on a downer with somebody in quiet tears, it’s hard to really give a s**t."

Michael Billington, Guardian

★★★★

"it has an exhilarating dash and bravura that put me in mind of the movies of Pedro Almodóvar."

"It is the gap between the often tawdry reality of the characters’ lives and their recognition of the values of loyalty, trust and duty that makes the play both funny and profound."

"Indhu Rubasingham’s production strikes a perfect balance between the play’s surface exuberance and stoical subtext and there is a beautiful set by Robert Jones"

The Motherf**ker with the Hat runs at the National Theatre Lyttelton until 20 August 2015.