We round up the reviews for Conor McPherson’s new play, directed by Rupert Goold.
WhatsOnStage: **** ” It’s an unusual and original show, one that haunts you long after you leave the theatre, its essential sadness sweetened by tinges of hope and a deep humanity.”
The Guardian: *** “In adapting Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2018 film, McPherson has harvested a nourishing if carb-heavy crop. The music, too, is repurposed, whether Polish and Lemko folk or a smattering of Elvis Costello numbers, including the ominous I Want You. The score never overwhelms the action (this is no musical), but nor does it quite invoke Zula’s passion for song.”
The FT: **** “The piece ends, as it begins, with music: a beautiful, haunting duet from Costello for Wiktor and Zula, movingly delivered by Thallon and Chalotra. Bleak but beautiful.”
Time Out: **** “Goold directs the whole thing like a sad, smokey late-night cabaret performance in a faded old bar: there’s a glamour to it but it’s intimate, warm and nocturnal. There are some clever tableaux and scene transitions with moments of clever stylisation but nothing too flashy – aesthetically it’s defined by the constant chugging of stage cigarettes.”
Evening Standard: **** “Goold’s production is vividly designed, embracing bright peasant garb and left-bank boho chic, Iron Curtain apparatchik offices and smoky, spotlit clubs. Choreographer Ellen Kane gives us windmilling rural dances, a spiritedly drunken jive to Rock Around the Clock, and a take on the famous Madison routine from Jean-Luc Godard’s Band a part. I didn’t have any of this on my dance card for theatre in December, but Cold War is a brilliantly bitter antidote to standard Christmas fare.”
The Telegraph: **** “With a translation by Conor McPherson, the Almeida’s stage premiere of Paweł Pawlikowski’s bleak 2018 film Cold War is a triumph.”
West End Best Friend: **** “At its core, Cold War is a story about the price of belonging and the cost of hiding your true self from yourself and others. Anya Chalotra and Luke Thallon capture the melancholy nature of the Soviet world. They are exceptional as tragic lovers, Zula and Wictor. Chalotra’s acting talents are well known but her vocals are a revelation. She is fantastically fearless as the bold Zula and her chemistry with Luke Thallon as the tortured Wictor is truthful and tangible.”
The Stage: *** “Piercingly beautiful but elusive melancholy love story, with gorgeous music from Elvis Costello.”
iNews: ***** “This small but mighty piece takes on, with unflagging sophistication, mighty themes – the sacrifices we make for others, the decisions we take that benefit only ourselves – and asks the towering existential question: what, or where, is freedom?”
London Theate.co.uk : *** “There are several flashes of scarred beauty, but there’s a feeling of it being unfinished: a tighter script, real chemistry between the leads and a fully Polish score would all lend considerably more power.”
All That Dazzles: *** “Adapted for the stage by Conor McPherson, Cold War is full of subtle and unassuming writing as it reflects the challenging times the characters face, drawing obvious parallels to Wiktor’s own withdrawn nature. While the story itself still manages to captivate, at times the low energy atmosphere of the majority of the play can lead to a slight pacing problem, particularly noticeable in the first act.”
The Reviews Hub: ** “Ellen Kane’s choreography reflects the different eras and styles well while Evie Gurney’s costumes create some striking stage pictures, but the love affair and thepolitics in Cold War are too tepid to make this show all it could have been.”
Culture Whisper: **** “Unlike Kaczmarek, who ‘never really believed in all this folky stuff’, Wiktor and Zula remain as committed to the music of their native Poland as to each other. While a star-crossed love story, first and foremost, McPherson’s tender adaptation acts as a musing on the concept of home and our loyalties to threatened traditions.”
The Independent: *** “Elvis Costello’s tame songs and Rupert Goold’s detached, hip production make this stage adaptation of Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2018 film lack its original warmth and richness.”
Broadway World: ** “The traditional music is the only saving grace. A rollicking chorus performing Lemko and Polish highlands folk music injects the production with needed vibrancy. Shifting with time, Zula’s career takes off taking us on a journey through sultry lounge jazz and the early days of pop. Costello’s original songs less impactful. Generic ornamentation rather than an emotional driving force.”
British Theatre Guide: “The leads work well together, playing contrasting personalities, both concealing secrets from the past. Thallon’s facial acting is superlative, whilst Chalotra never plays for sympathy, her infuriating petulance a hard act to pull off, but pull it off she does. They all do. Brilliant. I need to see it again.”
Cold War continues to play at the Almeida Theatre until the 27th January 2024.