Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are back on the London stage appearing in Sean Mathias’s production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land. The show officially opened in the West End last night – so what have critics thought about it?
The Guardian: **** Michael Billington found: “a faithful and loving production that captures both the essential bleakness and paradoxical comedy of this enigmatic masterwork.”
The Telegraph: ***** Dominic Cavendish wrote: “All four actors on stage (with Damien Molony and Owen Teale completing the quartet) display a deft sense of how to knock every utterance for six (each character, buffs should note, is named after a distinguished pre-Great War cricketer), even if, half the time, it’s as if the aim is to leave us stumped.”
Radio Times: **** “It’s a challenging piece of work, but utterly compelling thanks to the hypnotic poetry of Pinter’s script and first-rate performances.”
WhatsOnStage: *** Matt Trueman commented that: “Lighting lets it down, though – criminal for a play so infused with its imagery.”
Evening Standard: ***** Benedict Nightingale summed the production up by saying: “No Man’s Land remains a play packed with tension and conflict.”
The Financial Times: **** Ian Shuttleworth said: “They graduate the increasing sozzlement of the first act finely, and slip with equal assurance into what seem to be both the same and entirely different characters the morning after.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** Mark Shenton wrote: “The result is a spellbinding evening, if not an easy one.”
The Stage: **** “Stephen Brimson Lewis’ solidly realistic drawing room set is poetically offset by Nina Dunn’s projections of nearby Hampstead Heath where the two men meet, making for a stylish and spell-binding production.”
The Independent: **** Paul Taylor said: “McKellen delivers a wonderfully unsentimentalised portrait of Spooner.”
No Man’s Land plays at the Wyndham’s Theatre until the 17th December. To book tickets visit: Ticketmaster.co.uk, Discount Theatre.com, Last Minute.com, Theatre Tickets Direct.co.uk, Love Theatre.com, Theatre People.com and UK Tickets.co.uk.