Did Future Conditional make the grade?

Mark Valencia, WhatsOnStage

★★

"Tamsin Oglesby angry. Really angry… she's poured all her outrage into this big, fulminating play, and it's a mess. Perhaps cooler heads were needed."

"Matthew Warchus has selected Future Conditional to open his account as artistic director of the Old Vic, and a stranger choice would be hard to imagine."

"Rob Brydon, playing it straight, has touching solo moments… Other than that he's limited to occasional appearances."

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph

★★★

"Anyone who is a parent, and has encountered the tensions that can lurk around the school-gates, will relish [Oglesby's] comical portrait of frenemy mums"

"[Brydon]'s more off than on… and strangely has to address unseen, unheard classroom pupils."

"Thanks to Warchus’s directorial slickness the evening makes the grade as a thought-provoking start to the season."

Michael Billington, Guardian

★★★★

"There's almost no aspect of education Oglesby leaves out: private versus public, the postcode lottery, parental dilemmas, institutional tribalism."

"What is hard to convey is the sheer amount of fun both in the writing and Warchus’s ebullient ensemble production."

"Lucy Briggs-Owen [captures] perfectly the moral contortions of a middle-class mum opting for the private sector and Natalie Klamar [is] equally good as her idealistic opposite"

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail

★★

"I fear it is a dud: cliched, dramatically untidy, untruthful to the point of dishonesty."

"[a] portrait of Oxbridge clubbishness is so ludicrously unbelievable it would stick out as a crude caricature even in a Christmas pantomime."

"We must hope that in future Mr Warchus himself shows a more discerning approach to selection"

Paul Taylor, Independent

★★★

"It's lively, disputatious, and full of clued-up, irreverent humour."

"Brydon is the headliner but Warchus's in-the-round production is a vibrant company effort with a large cast who infuse this venerable venue with young blood."

"The piece flits around three strands and, to me, sometimes felt like a host of punchily-raised issues in search of a properly satisfying play."

Rebekah Ellerby, A Younger Theatre

"it drills into educational inequalities and absurd policies with real humour and sensitivity."

"Nikki Patel delicately handles the role of this Pakistani girl who comes to England age eleven… There are lovely resonances with Malala Yousafzai."

"There is a fresh intellectual vigour to Future Conditional. Matthew Warchus has started his reign over the Old Vic with an irresistible youthful comedy."