We take a look at how critics have been reacting to Jeremy Herrin’s production, running until the 16th January 2027.
The Guardian: “Raine treads a fine line between faithfulness and invention, keeping many of Eliot’s lines but turning the omniscient narrator into a character (Amanda Root). It becomes clear that this is Eliot herself, not only watching over her story but listening to characters divulge anxieties or yearning, and sometimes interrupting them, mid-scene. It is a very inventive way to get around delivering a backstory without clumsy exposition, but it feels too much like a device.”
WhatsOnStage: “It’s a pleasure to watch all these characters grow and change as Root’s Eliot offers her observations on the patterns of society that trap these individuals in patterns of behaviour. For the full effect, you need to see both plays, but taken as a whole this is an adaptation that celebrates those hidden lives in rural England and the brilliance of the woman who described it.”
The FT: “Told across two three-hour plays by Nina Raine at Stratford-upon-Avon, a superb cast and sympathetic production foreground the author’s genius.”
Theatre & Tonic: “Despite its length, the play flows well and is a fantastic homage to the book. Audience members with little to no knowledge of the story will have no trouble following the characters’ journeys and will no doubt be swept up in this heartfelt and humorous tale of provincial life. A stunning production that shows how classics can be revived and retold without losing the essence of the original.”
The Telegraph: “An energetic ensemble show remarkable stamina and star quality, but the author-as-narrator diminishes their characters’ vitality.”
West End Best Friend: “There is no denying that the acting is first class, the direction and staging slick and efficient keeping the action flowing, if not at pace, and at least seamlessly helped by the excellent stage floor of traps and risers.”
Broadway World: “This vivid and emotional adaptation is definitely a theatrical highlight of the year so far, and further evidence that bringing more books to the stage is the way forward.”
British Theatre Guide: “All members of the cast are first class, among them Andrew Richardson as the reformist but susceptible Dr Lydgate, Ian Drysdale as the dour, heedless Mr Casaubon, Peter Forbes as an ebullient, likeable but fogey-ish Mr Brooke and in other distinctly dislikable roles and John Hodgkinson as Mr Bulstrode, a man with a sense of guilt but a greater sense of self-interest, and who also delivers an irresistible comic turn as a jolly, swaggering auctioneer.”
Stage Talk Magazine: “The two parts make for a long sit, but it never feels long. This ambitious undertaking shows the range of what theatre can achieve, not only in creating a living, breathing world on stage but in taking us back to work of one our greatest novelists and the extraordinary life that infused her writing.”
The Stage: “Jeremy Herrin’s two-part production of the George Eliot novel is like an exquisitely crafted theatrical box set.”
The Independent: “The Royal Shakespeare Company has condensed Eliot’s classic study of provincial life into two parts over six hours, with the author herself part of the production’s cast of characters. Inevitably, things are missing – but it’s an awesome achievement.”
Theatre Cat: “This wise narrative device of onstage author achieves much: artistically it makes you reflect on the aesthetic of “God’s-Eye” narration in a novel, simultaneous creation and detachment, and how George Eliot’s achievement is so remarkable. On a more personal level ,my companion agreed, it just made us wish we had a wise author played by Root wandering through our own life’s scenes to make more sense of them and forgive us.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.rsc.org.uk/middlemarch