We round up the reviews for Blanche McIntyre‘s production starring Freddy Carter and Anushka Chakravarti.
The Guardian: **** “Chiara Atik’s play about Saint Clare of Assisi and her friendship with the often more celebrated Saint Francis takes its lead from the Netflix school of sassy history. The cast have American accents and could be high-schoolers clicking their fingers, despite the period dress. The drama archly positions club-land beats and contemporary phraseology (“cool”, “totally” “my social anxiety …”) alongside choral sounds and medieval monasticism. It is light on historical detail, heavy on humour and attitude.”
West End Best Friend: ***** “Arsema Thomas makes an impressive professional stage debut as Clare, portraying the gradual eye-opening transformation from privileged daughter destined for an arranged marriage to a rich suitor, to the simplicity of a life in a nunnery dressed in sackcloth. It is a portrayal of intelligence, intensity and humanity as she establishes the headstrong motivation that gave up so much. Her relationship with her younger sister Beatrice (Anushka Chakravarti) is charmingly played with great comic skills in the bickering, pauses, looks and delivery between them.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Poor Clare is both timely and timeless and a gentle nudge for the audience to think about how we can be better people.”
All That Dazzles: **** “Poor Clare is a funny, and astute piece of theatre that works well because iof its unfortunately timeless themes. It asks the audience to think about social injustice and how we can better help people. Despite a few heavy-handed moments, it’s a smart and stirring production that lingers long after the final bow.”
The Reviews Hub: **** 1/2 “Chiara Atik asks profound questions of her well-heeled Richmond audience, and it may not make much of a practical difference, but it asks questions that need asking, makes demands that have to be answered. And entertains at the same time.”
London Theatre 1: **** “Eleanor Bull’s set is straightforward and functional, in the sense that there wasn’t anything on stage that shouldn’t have been there, and her costumes are suitably varied for the different scenarios and contexts the show demands. It felt like the play was commissioned to be a ‘state of the nation’ play, or even a ‘state of the world’ one. Either way, this briskly paced and perceptive production does well overall to bring a centuries-old story into our supposedly more enlightened times.”
The Standard: *** “McIntyre’s production is polished and marks Thomas as a talent to watch but can’t disguise the fact that the play is basically just pointing at inequality, saying that it is bad and telling us that we’re all culpable. Which prompted an equally simplistic response from me: how many meals would a homeless person get from the price of a theatre ticket?”
The Stage: **** “European premiere of Chiara Atik’s superbly subversive satire based on the lives of Saints Clare and Francis.”
Theatre Cat: *** “Chiara Atik’s play feels timely in its sense of reckless youthful determination. And in the final scene, touching is her kneeling, nunly plea never to be blinded to poverty and to find a way to “be good”.”
Poor Clare continues to play at the Orange Tree Theatre until the 9th August.