Find out what critics have been saying about the world premiere of Alexander Zeldin’s play.
Broadway World: **** “Still, Care is a great theatrical achievement just for its attempts to plumb the subconscious of the elderly, rather than treating them merely as objects of sympathy. There is nothing saccharine here, but instead a dignified portrait of old age in all its complexities.”
The Reviews Hub: **** “The care home is authentically designed by Rosanna Vize, while James Farncombe’s lighting design is subtle, but at one point, the brightness outside the facility doors is crushingly bright as opposed to the unending dusk inside.”
The Telegraph: ***** “Alexander Zeldin’s latest drama is a profound portrait of life and death in a nursing home.”
London Theatre 1: ***** ” As I wrote at the start of this review, CARE is a bleak, harrowing view of old age: it needn’t be like this we say to ourselves, and then push the problem aside, saying that it is nothing to do with us and that we can do nothing about it. Until we also end up in an end-of-life care home…”
Time Out: *** “It’s shamelessly emotionally manipulative in places, with a clanging last note. And compared to the Inequalities trilogy, it’s not totally clear what Zeldin is actually trying to say about the care system other than that ‘this is what it’s like’. Which is fair enough: it’s a world that little dramatic light gets thrown on – and with the brilliant Bassett as our proxy, it’s a powerfully unsparing guide to the end.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Bassett is simply magnificent, charting Joan’s decline from courage to despair to a sort of staring acceptance of her fate, conveying whole worlds with a raise of an eyebrow or the touch of a hand on a cheek. And William Lawlor – as her teenage grandson, lost in his own despair at finding a world he believed certain is agonisingly full of emptiness – is unbearably touching.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “It’s a form of endurance theatre for the audience – the kind that lodges a lump in your throat and doesn’t let up – but making us face dying and death in this way is arguably its own form of care.”
All That Dazzles: ***** “At 2 hours and 10 minutes without an interval, CARE can be a hard watch, but the time goes by quickly, never outstaying its welcome. It may feel rather long for a one-act play, but an interval would risk losing the momentum. Watching this from start to finish, even as time progressed, reeled the audience in and ensured they were more engaged as time went on.”
The Standard: **** “What’s to be done now we’re all living too long, increasingly frail and increasingly in need of care? Zeldin doesn’t pretend to have any answers. But this powerful show presents it as a question we’ll all have to face.”
Time Out: *** “It’s shamelessly emotionally manipulative in places, with a clanging last note. And compared to the Inequalities trilogy, it’s not totally clear what Zeldin is actually trying to say about the care system other than that ‘this is what it’s like’. Which is fair enough: it’s a world that little dramatic light gets thrown on – and with the brilliant Bassett as our proxy, it’s a powerfully unsparing guide to the end.”
The Stage: **** “Alexander Zeldin’s evocation of end-of-life care, starring Linda Bassett and Hayley Carmichael, is meticulous and hard to watch.”
West End Best Friend: ***** “The reaction of many in the audience showed how close to home these issues are for so many, but what this cathartic play did was to show, especially through the indication of hope at the end, that we can get through these events together, thanks to the innate need to care that is deep within us, whatever obstacles are placed in our way.”
The iNews: “For all their complaints about being overworked and under-resourced, the two carers we see, above all, Llewella Gideon’s cheerfully resilient Hazel, have an almost saintly amount of time and patience for their charges. It seems to have become an obligation for all care workers and NHS staff to be portrayed like this, but unfortunately, this is very far from my experience with Mum. “
Care continues to play at the Young Vic until the 11th July.