Was Dinner with Saddam to critics' tastes?

Michael Coveney, Whatsonstage

★★★★★

"Anthony Horowitz has come up with the most brilliant idea for a new Ray Cooney farce: Saddam Hussein drops in for dinner unexpectedly when there's plenty you don't want him to know about."

"Enter Steven Berkoff's amazing Saddam – looking like a cross between Fu Manchu and an embalmed Robert de Niro"

"Bhaskar trying to get things cooking in an awkwardly restricting hose and jacket revives glorious memories of Derek Royle in classic Cooney"

Michael Billington, The Guardian

★★★

"Given what we know about the tragic fate of Iraq, it is difficult to raise a smile about the embarrassments of Saddam Hussein dropping in for dinner."

"A part of me admires Horowitz for boldly using a popular form to make political points. But… it’s difficult to laugh when they stem from a sewage crisis caused by an international ban on the importation of chlorine."

"Berkoff, mixing uncivil leers at his host’s daughter with the danger of a cobra who could strike at any moment, is always a pleasure to watch."

Claire Allfree, The Daily Telegraph

★★

"The problem with his honourably intentioned comedy is that almost nothing beyond its premise (a paranoid Hussein would indeed turn up unannounced at private houses for dinner as a means of evading assassins) feels like it has much bearing with reality."

"Horowitz, so excellent at orchestrating novels, is ham-fisted at plotting comedy."

" a silly play masquerading as a serious one."

Paul Taylor, The Independent

★★★★

"[Anthony Horowitz has] had a genuinely inspired idea and developed it into a delirious, sharp-edged farce."

"Superbly plotted heart-attack mix-ups and a disarmingly eloquent indictment of American adventurism. I'm still aching from the laughter."

Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard

★★

"This is one of the most unapologetically silly plays I’ve ever seen. "

"But the play, directed by Lindsay Posner, is an uncomfortable mix of history lesson and lurid romp."

"After the interval there’s an abundance of emotionally charged speechifying, as Horowitz vents his political grievances."

Dinner with Saddam runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 14 November 2015