We round up the reviews for the play by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, which continues to play until the 15th March.
WhatsOnStage: “In her professional stage debut, former Skins star Scodelario gives the production’s most rounded and sympathetic performance as Lena, a former Mennonite (a Christian sect that eschews modern technology) with a dark past.”
The Arts Desk: “House of Cards writer tackles AI and religion, but without the necessary clarity.”
The Guardian: “There are references to religion, love, abuse and deceit, and the play attempts to answer the big, complicated question of what makes something human. But the pace of the drama slows and sags.”
West End Best Friend: “The play presents intriguing ideas, particularly around AI and God—the relationship between religion, culture and technology is explored effectively through the lens of Lena’s faith and Ari’s cultural background. However, this is sometimes lost in the over-intellectualisation of the characters’ feelings and experiences.”
The Standard: “The frustrating thing, apart from the waste of acting talent, is that Willimon’s thoughts on AI – human tech-zealots creating a deity that could annihilate us – seem tantalizingly profound. But in this underpopulated thriller they’re buried behind hackneyed characterisations and lines like: “Was that the double-bind situation when we were exploring negative capability?” Which could, ironically, have been written by an AI asked to spout meaningless jargon.”
Theatre & Tonic: “If you enjoy tense shows which explore the dynamic of faith versus technology, a excellent cast who explore how far we can push the bounds of technology and even how we identify the formation of a soul, then this is the play for you.”
The Reviews Hub: “Ales Eales’ design utilises the Hampstead Theatre’s trademark split-level staging to solid effect. The lower-level interrogating room, dull grey throughout, recalls the soulless corporate prison of TV’s Sci-fi hit Severance, which is appropriate perhaps for a production full of ideas but, like its subject, lacking in humanity. Director Ellen McDougall handles the narrative time shifts effectively enough but ultimately finds it hard to make us care much where the protagonists end up.”
Lou Reviews: “Technically, East is South delivers with the set design (Alex Eales), lighting (Azusa Ono), and sound (Tingying Dong) all effective. However, a play succeeds when what is presented inside these designs makes sense and allows an audience some catharsis.”
London Theatre 1: ” The cast do their best with what they are given, but the script was too disengaging to be treated with the seriousness that the subject matter deserves.”
London Unattached: “But in choosing to eschew the active conjecture of science fiction while also leaping forward to a point in time when humanity is on the cusp of an AI takeover, East is South traps itself between drama and theory – and gives too little of both.”
Broadway World: “The frequent switches from present to past and back again are distracting but not heavy-handed. The moral debates and techy jargon can mean scenes are on the wordy side but they never stoop to a Stoppard level of navel-gazing esotericism.”
Time Out: “And for the times that this production stumbles under the weight of its determination to say Big Things, there’s also the transcendent combination of Zakk Hein’s videography, projected like code – or the future – onto the stage, and Tingying Dong’s expansive sound design. Or there’s Sasha’s excited comparison of Bach composing his first major piece with climbing a mountain, backed by composer Colin Stetson’s arrangement. A bit like the play itself, it’s self-important but also strangely thrilling.”
Fairy Powered Productions: “Under Ellen McDougall’s direction, there is an ebb and flow of tension and pace in what is very dense subject matter. In the 100 minutes that we are sitting in the theatre, there are big questions posed around philosophy, human and technological ethics, religion, identity, love, suicide, and abuse, but few answers are proffered.”
To find out more visit: https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/east-is-south/