Robert Icke directs this new play by David Hare, starring Mark Strong, Hope Davis and Elizabeth Debicki. It officially opened at the National Theatre last night (17th October), here is what critics have been saying about it.
The Guardian: *** “although it is momentarily impressive, there is something glacially chic about the whole enterprise.”
The Independent: **** “Icke’s flair at merging a theatrical and a cinematic sensibility is certainly harnessed again here, almost to the point of overkill.”
Evening Standard: *** “despite the finely tuned performances the characters don’t entirely justify such scrutiny, and their slowly paced, clinical exchanges don’t achieve the cumulative force they need to.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “if something is lost in the switch from the novel’s intense interiority to theatre’s need to explain, something is also gained in the stark shock of the telling.”
Time Out: **** “The Red Barn will divide audiences, but if you can surrender to its crepuscular ebb and flow and wincing interrogation of masculinity then it will indeed thrill.”
The Stage: *** “The production is one of millimetre precision, but, aside from an intense and gripping final scene, it feels weirdly clinical.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “I was gripped more by the sets than the action.”
Culture Whisper: **** “The Red Barn is a visually mesmerising experience and demonstrates how cinematic theatre can be.”
The Reviews Hub: ***** “Suspenseful, thrilling and beautifully paced, The Red Barn is theatre at its most breathtaking.”
Broadway World:*** “You admire the show’s bravura skill, but don’t fully inhabit its drama.”
The Upcoming: ***** “The Red Barn concerns itself with the same questions about man that troubled Shakespeare but its exploration of these themes is strikingly original.”
British Theatre Guide: “it feels rather dated and static on stage so that for long periods of the 110-minute running time very little appears to happen.”
The Red Barn plays at the National Theatre until the 17th January 2017. For more information and to book tickets visit: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/red-barn.