Find out what is being said Ben Power’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, playing until the 22nd June.
WhatsOnStage: *** “The cast is strong, with Jamael Westman bringing warmth and grace to the indolent lawyer Eugene Wrayburn and Mothersdale lending Rokesmith melancholy intensity and charm. Both Bella and Lizzie are given considerably more agency than they have in the novel, and Tredrea and Maclean turn them into rounded, spirited women. Peter Wight is a gentle joy as the kindly Boffin, and Ellie-May Sheridan gives a very contemporary sounding Jenny Wren, the toys’ dressmaker, bite and humour.”
The Guardian: *** “Period drama is given some sharp edges in this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, set to a plangent soundtrack by PJ Harvey. The result is a dose of Dickens, and Harvey, as never seen or heard before.”
The Independent: *** “Ben Power’s deft adaptation of Dickens’s sprawling novel emphasises its brilliant characters and eternally relevant themes, but the bleak production and dour music wrestle with one another rather than cohering as a whole.”
The Stage: *** “Dickens adaptation with songs by PJ Harvey teems with ideas and images.”
Evening Standard: ** “With songs as (flaccid) commentary, this is a play with songs, not a musical. Harvey’s ceaselessly repetitive, deadeningly slow rhythms and mostly stolidly unchanging harmonies – unhelped by Powers’ flat, earnest lyrics – never make a case for songs being in the show whatsoever.”
Time Out: **** “There are surely easier ways to adapt ‘Our Mutual Friend’ into a stage production. ‘London Tide’ deliberately plays to non-traditional strengths, and would be greatly diminished without the songs and the set. But with all its parts combined, this story from the city is something special: Dickens’s late class drama turned into a work both elemental and righteous.”
London Unattached: “Lighting (Jack Knowles) was the high point of this production, not only capturing the watery hues of the Thames in blues, greens, greys and browns but also evoking the movement of the tides. The light rigs were packed with spotlights and moved repeatedly up and down, undulating like the water. The set (Bunny Christie) was sparse with some very effective use of plastic to represent the river and the costumes, despite a lovely mint green dress, were mostly greys and browns which became rather dreary over three hours.”
Broadway World: ** “With that said the ensemble cast are the saving grace (just when not singing). Ami Tredrea’s Lizzie Hexam balances unsentimental earnestness with slick focus, slyly playing off Jamael Westman’s suave but senstive Eugene Wrayburn. Tom Mothersdale, shoulders hunched and desolation pouring from his angst-ridden eyes, is magnetic as existentially tormented John Rokesmith, and Ellie-May Sheridan exudes scene-stealing chutzpah as street urchin Jenny Wren. They deserve better than to be drowned in the dour London Tide.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “Dickens’s still-relevant social commentary comes powering through, especially his biting satire around inequality, class snobbery, and the plight of characters like Bella who get caught between two worlds. There’s also a cracking line about useless politicians. This promising watery play at our great riverside theatre just needs more in its depths – and fewer songs.”
British Theatre Guide: “A consistently strong cast disguises how concentration on plot gives no space to explore character or reflect Dickens’s critique of society. But what, for instance, is the motivation of schoolmaster Headstone, who turns into a conventional baddie? Nevertheless, London Tide is eminently watchable, and if you don’t already know its complex story, it has some real surprises.”
The Telegraph: *** “Harvey’s songs prove more of a help than a hindrance in this so-so adaptation of Our Mutual Friend – but it boasts a transfixing stage debut.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/london-tide/