We take a look at what is being said about the Menier Chocolate Factory’s revival of Ryan Craig’s play.
The Guardian: **** “Set on a single fraught evening, it’s the sort of play where characters representing useful debating positions happen to pop in, carrying crucial reports in buff envelopes. Despite the spuming argument, it’s the bleak silences when talk fades away that are most eloquent: when Woodeson’s gaze turns inward and we see his defeat.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “Premiered in 2011 at the National Theatre, this pressure cooker of a domestic drama has returned – set as before in a Jewish household in Edgware, north London, but somewhat tweaked so as to reflect the ramped-up political landscape. The difference is a production from Lindsay Posner that cuts far more deeply than the text did first time round, coupled with a realisation that the central issues of the play occupy today’s headlines with a gathering ferocity reflected in the commitment of Posner’s first-rate cast.”
Time Out: *** “It’s a bit sub-Miller in an age where you can’t move for revivals of actual Miller. But whatever faults it may have, there is, sadly, no sign of The Holy Rosenbergs fading into irrelevance.”
The Arts Desk: “Lindsay Posner’s well-focused production, which balances pain with humour, is set in a recognizably real suburban interior, designed in detail by Tim Shortall, and fields some emotionally truthful acting. “
All That Dazzles: **** “What The Holy Rosenbergs lacks in escapism, it more than makes up for in its thought-provoking nature. Its stark relevance makes for a poignant and powerful piece of theatre that asks questions about loyalty and what is right in the world, managing to simultaneously work on a global scale while keeping the action rooted to a singular family.”
Broadway World: *** “Lindsay Posner directs this revival as a cocktail of Friday Night Dinner — in which Woodeson appeared as a rabbi — stirred in with healthy dollops of Eastenders and Newsnight. Tim Shortall’s static set is Nineties by way of the Seventies, a midi hifi system the only sign of technology among the Italian furniture and family photos. The sound and light design from Yvonne Gilbert and Charles Balfour are similarly perfunctory.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “The Holy Rosenbergs is an imperfect play, but a brave and intelligent one too.”
The Standard: *** “Perhaps the problems of the play, which was originally commissioned and staged by the National Theatre, reflect the sheer impossibility of putting the Israeli-Palestinian situation on stage without resorting to helpless, hand-wringing despair. This is a serious, and at times seriously funny, bid to show how events in Gaza impact Jews elsewhere, but also a clumsy one.”
The Stage: *** “Strong performances hold together this knotty, overstuffed drama about tensions within the Anglo-Jewish community.”
Theatre Cat: **** “The Rosenbergs are trapped, like all of us but more paintfully, in this miserable, inextricable angry rift within the human family. Woodeson’s final moments, with his daughter, are haunting. So they should be.”
Theatre Weekly: **** “Posner’s direction keeps the first act intentionally slow-burning. It’s a steady accumulation of pressure: conversations that go nowhere, family rituals that feel slightly off-kilter, all building towards a second act that is far more tense and absorbing.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/