Lloyd Evans

“The casting is wonky. Some of the performers are a decade or two older than the characters they play. A few of them lack the skills to enunciate Coward's dialogue crisply.”

“This is a decent show but hardly a classic.”

“Luckily these excesses don’t last long enough to impair the joy and hilarity of the script.”

“The greatest asset is Roger Allam who slips effortlessly into the role of Frank. He's as cuddly as Paddington and as caustic as Peter Cook.”

“This show erases the dark side and treats him like an all-American charmer whose triumph is inevitable.”

“Devotees of Mamet may find it patchy but the play is so powerful that it can survive any amount of experimental tinkering.”

“But if you dislike folksy theatre, this may not suit you.”

“This is an informative and amusing comedy, a little arid in parts, which students of theatrical history will adore.”

“This muddled show is almost impossible to follow.”

“Both are tiresome, threadbare personalities.”

“Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Esteem) plays Maggie perfectly well as a prattling narcissistic nuisance but it’s a role that demands little depth or subtlety.”

“Everyone will be talking about this for months.”

“Watching TV in the theatre is like visiting a restaurant to read the menu.”

“Only bored academics and Rattigan specialists will want to see this botch job.”

“You’ll see better acting at the Edinburgh Fringe but never mind.”

“Rhys Jones and Francis are on dazzling form as the ageing heavyweights dragged out of retirement for one last punch-up.”

“The play amounts to nothing but the low-grade grumblings of a posh, idle brat whose hatred of her relatives is keenly reciprocated.”

“The total absence of suspense from this good-looking show is probably deliberate.”

“This amazing climax arrives 65 minutes into the show but the rest of it has no drive or purpose.”

“You may be glad you went but you’ll certainly be glad to get out.”

“First of all, the show is sensational.”

“Van Hove’s cranky decisions can’t mar the power of the play’s thrilling finale.”

“This is a sublime version of a play that can easily wrong-foot an unwary director.”

“Not a bad night out, not a great one.”

“This is a flat-share Hamlet without depth or intellectual curiosity.”

“If you love this play, you may find this version a let-down. Too brassy, too unsubtle, too clever.”

“They sound like a pair of rich kids bickering at a polo match.”

“Artistically, it’s as demanding as listening to a knock-knock joke or reading the contents on a cereal box.”

“The play develops into a gripping whodunnit and the evidence is neatly orchestrated to keep the truth hidden from view.”

“There are far too many threads here, poorly orchestrated.”

“It's more a drama-school showcase than an epic human tragedy.”

“Perhaps the plan was to add layers of emotional depth to the story but the experiment doesn’t work because the Vivie-Kitty relationship is based on distance and alienation, not on love and propinquity.”

“Tamsin Greig, as always, seems to be performing a role that was written with her in mind.”

“Dramatically, this is pure gold.”

“My Neighbour Totoro is a hugely successful show based on a Japanese movie made in 1988. The setting is a haunted house occupied by two little girls who encounter various creatures rendered on stage by puppets. The story has no action, danger or jeopardy so it’s likely to bore small boys and their dads.”

“This show is full of warmth, mischief and fun.”

“The dramatic arrangement of the challenge is very craftily handled with plenty of surprises to keep you guessing.”

“This is an earnest attempt to bring Shakespeare down to the level of cruise-ship entertainment.”

“If you have two hours to spare, spend it anywhere but here.”

“Virtually everything is staged exactly as it is in the film.”

“The material is extremely dull and yet it’s possible to turn dross into a gripping story if you hire a dramatist.”

“This bad idea has been adopted by Jamie Lloyd in his cheerless version starring Sigourney Weaver.”

“The real subject of the story is workplace bullying, which it promotes as a moral virtue.”

“But on its own terms, it’s a thumping success.”

“The story is full of puzzles and difficulties like this.”

“It may be doable but that doesn’t make it worth doing.”

“In all, this show could do with a major rethink.”

“The best parts of the play don’t feature the best actor.”

“If you feel you ought to see Coriolanus – perhaps you haven’t ticked that box yet – you’ll find this an acceptable option.”

“A bit boring, of course, but there are laughs to be had in James Macdonald’s production.”

“This dazzlingly funny play is not revived as frequently as it deserves to be.”

“The play seems to reinforce the caricatures it sets out to diminish.”

“This shapeless, facile drama isn’t really a show but a cookery demonstration hosted by a quartet of witless buffoons trying to be funny and occasionally breaking character to perform karaoke routines.”

“The show makes few demands of the audience but it has terrific comic integrity and a wonderful sense of fun.”

“And this production does it full justice.”

“For anyone who saw the sitcom in the 1970s, this is a pleasantly weird show.”

“His personality makes no sense at all.”

“Brian Cox captures this gruff and friendless ogre very well, but the play is an unbearable torment.”

“Player Kings, Icke’s new version of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, is a dazzling piece of entertainment and the only exaggerated performance comes from Sir Ian McKellen who plays Falstaff, quite rightly, as a noisy, swaggering dissembler.”

“This tedious act of defamation belongs in the bin.”

“This version is as fresh as a spring breeze and dazzlingly well written by David Cale.”

“The writer, John O’Farrell, captures Geldof brilliantly in a complex and unsympathetic portrait of a prickly yob.”

“This show is a lightweight pastiche, like a French & Saunders spoof, but it lacks the substance for a whole evening’s entertainment.”

“Any director planning to work at the Lyttelton should see Emily Burns’s fabulous production.”

“Here, the audience is fighting to maintain its interest.”

“A fine ending to a sometimes crass and ill-disciplined show.”

“The dialogue sounds true to life but it’s also meandering, flat and witless – the sort of drivel you’d overhear in a vet’s waiting room.”

“The storyline is impossible to follow because the basic set up isn’t properly explained and the knotty script is crowded with references to people such as ‘Mr Fairplay’ and ‘the Brazilians’ who don’t ever appear on stage.”

“Infinite Life doesn’t feel like a play but a prank staged by psychologists who want to see how much vacuous poppycock a paying audience will bear before they demand a refund.”

“What a muddle this show is. All the tragic elements are ludicrous and all the farcical elements are tedious.”

“This is an amusing little playlet buried in 150 minutes of rhetoric.”

“Minor blemishes aside, this is a glorious evening’s entertainment.”

“The main failing of Branagh’s performance is his bubbling, effervescent energy.”

“It’s a piece of absurdism that doesn’t know how absurd it is.”

“Stay at home. Watch bark grow. It’s more exciting than this vanity project.”

“Alas, the show itself is a thumb-twiddling dud.”

“Overall the show feels like a Gothic opera staged in an underground car park during a blackout.”

“He makes a decent fist of Alexander, the crotchety professor with a disabling limp.”

“Played by the dazzling Amy Trigg, she’s the best thing in this bland piece of community theatre.”

“Virtually everything in Tom Morris’s production lacks originality.”

“The story grinds towards a lamely predictable conclusion after two long hours.”

“There’s barely enough material here for a sketch show let alone a full-length play and the script is padded out with meandering scenes and underdeveloped characters.”

“Only a psychopath could endure more than five seconds of this inhumane bilge.”

“The puppetry is first-class, of course.”

“Like the best musicals, this show has the atmosphere of a joyous religious service.”

“This is an astonishing feat of compressed storytelling.”

“This type of schmaltz is often unbearable to sit through but here it’s a joy.”

“But the show unwittingly perpetuates the prejudice it seeks to disparage.”

“The presence of these costumed musicians diminishes the rawness and immediacy of the drama and makes it feel like a civic exhibition staged for a crowd of yawning aldermen in a town hall.”

“This is an amazing feat of writing, performance and directing.”

“Famine zones are more fun than this play and yet Brian Friel's shrieking bumpkins are exactly what the Arts Council wants us to see.”

“The surfeit of gore is enervating and boring, not moving.”

“It has a pulse but not a heart.”

“A show that approaches perfection.”

“This is a mega-budget muddle posing as a state-of-the-nation musical.”

“The Lehman Trilogy is a miracle of charm. And a miracle of escapology.”

“The thing is harmless enough but impossible to get fired up about.”

“The dialogue is admirably witty and inventive, and there are passages that would not disgrace Noël Coward.”

“This is a funny, warm and likeable comedy full of decent gags.”

“Although it looks sensational, it’s an eccentric triviality aimed at 1970s feminists.”