On LoveLondonLoveCulture, Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for the stage adaptation of Ruben Östlund’s film Force Majeure, now at London’s Donmar Warehouse until 5 February 2022.
‘Interesting themes about human behaviour under extreme pressure’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
Force Majeure is a random act of God that cannot be predicted or measured that entirely disrupts planned activity, something we can all appreciate a little better in the past two years.
‘Genius programming for winter 2022’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse ★★★
Inspired programming here. You’d find a decent overlap in any January Venn diagram of regular Donmar audiences and people who wish they were skiing.
‘Director Michael Longhurst brings ski slopes to Covent Garden’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
Adapted from Ruben Östlund’s film, Force Majeure is an exercise in family breakdown set among a group of well-off Swedes on a skiing holiday.
‘Great writing can be interpreted & reinterpreted in any number of ways’: CONSTELLATIONS – Donmar Warehouse (Online review)
There’s a world (indeed, a universe) of possibilities in this intriguing play about decisions and repercussions.
‘A gem of a two-hander’: CONSTELLATIONS – Vaudeville Theatre
I finally caught up with Michael Longhurst’s restaging of his 2012 Royal Court production of Nick Payne’s Constellations, a gem of a two-hander.
NEWS: Rory Kinnear & Kit Harington are cast in Donmar Warehouse’s new season
London’s Donmar Warehouse has announced its reopening season following extended closure and completion of essential building works, beginning with with Inua Ellams’ audience-led poetry event Search Party.
‘Thrilling theatrical experience’: CONSTELLATIONS – Vaudeville Theatre
Nick Payne’s infinitely fascinating and multi-faceted 2012 play about the endless possibilities of life (and facing death) is perfectly expressed in a revival of director Michael Longhurst’s original production that has now been cast in four different age, race and gender combinations that itself yields multiple meanings.
NEWS: Four new casts take turns to star in Donmar Warehouse production of Constellations at the Vaudeville Theatre
Donmar Warehouse artistic director Michael Longhurst will revive his acclaimed Royal Court, West End and Broadway production of Nick Payne’s Constellations which will run at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre from 18 June to 12 September 2021.
‘A scintillating production which consistently thrills’: AMADEUS – National Theatre (Online review)
Sixteen weeks ago the National Theatre At Home season was launched and this week the final show began its one week run. In Amadeus they may just have saved the best until last.
NEWS: Donmar Warehouse will reopen temporarily with socially distanced sound installation featuring Juliet Stevenson
The Donmar Warehouse is to reopen temporarily from 3 to 22 August 2020 with a socially distanced sound installation – Blindness, based on the dystopian novel by Nobel-prize winning José Saramago, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Walter Meierjohann.
The cinefication of theatre predates lockdown: What are the implications?
For better or worse, the association between theatre, television and film has only grown closer in the last ten years, not just with artists moving between the different genres but also in the adoption of cinematic technique within productions.
‘Diana Quick gives a bravura performance’: MIDNIGHT YOUR TIME – Donmar Warehouse (Online review)
This revival of a 2011 HighTide hit, reconceived for streaming, stars Diana Quick and is intimate and quietly moving.
NEWS: Michael Longhurst announces his second season at the Donmar Warehouse
Michael Longhurst has announced his second season as artistic of the Donmar Warehouse. The first production will be Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks’ modern epic In the Blood (17 April – 6 June 2020). Ellen McDougall will direct the first major UK production.
‘Funny, sad & meaningful’: TEENAGE DICK – Donmar Warehouse
In Teenage Dick Mike Lew has created a version of Richard III that suits the high school context extremely well, asking the audience to consider attitudes to disability, power and social structures that perpetuate all kinds of inequality.
‘Well-made family drama’: THE SON – West End
This portrayal of contemporary family life dealing with depression is honest and believable in The Son, yet there’s a cold judgement underpinning it.
‘Devastatingly raw piece of drama’: THE SON – West End ★★★★★
Brilliantly and emotionally engagingly translated by Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller’s The Son is a piece of writing that draws you in from the start and never relinquishes its hold until the very end.
‘Akin to a beautifully composed piece of music’: THE SON – West End
The Son is akin to a beautifully composed piece of music. A perfect balance of light and shade with an inevitable surge to a heart thumping climax.
‘Haunting, both actual & metaphorical, is at its heart’: APPROPRIATE – Donmar Warehouse
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play Appropriate is a brilliantly acute and entertaining, if a bit depressing, deconstruction of the great American family drama.
‘The past is never just the past’: APPROPRIATE – Donmar Warehouse
Jacobs-Jenkins explores how even fairly recent national history can be sanitised and reduced when examined from only one perspective in Appropriate at the Donmar Warehouse.