Muswell Hill

See it if If you want to see a great play about really really bad people

Don't see it if If you need to have a good person to win in the end

Also This play was really good. Acting was great. The set and the direction was perfect. They made great use of the space. Most of the reviews suggest that there are not any good characters in the play. I think one of the characters is a really good person. I just love good plays about bad people... Read more Read less

See it if A group of ego centered and emotionally damaged parade around while Rome is burning....never truly engaging.

Don't see it if Do not see if you perfer musicals or light dramas.

See it if for its fantastic acting ensemble and intelligent writing and direction.

Don't see it if you're looking for a play with dramatic narrative.

See it if you enjoy an in depth character study of some flawed people. You won't like them, but they are complex & interesting in their selfishness.

Don't see it if you want a play with likable characters.

See it if you haven't seen or know enough self-absorbed people who are so obsessed with their own navels they don't see the world around them.

Don't see it if you're looking for something fresh and new or something that will justify the time you spend in the theatre.

See it if You like awkward dinner party plays. I do. Narcissistic characters but fun to watch. Jess had acting chops and good kitchen skills.

Don't see it if You have no patience for characters behaving badly or professor types overacting. I liked the set but my husband was thrown seeing backstage

See it if You like combative dinner parties with rather stereotypical combatants who are somewhat overdrawn. Some dialogue is quite funny/embarrasing

Don't see it if You don't like 'kitchen sink' type drama with strange characters who don't seem to fit together in the same place

See it if Flawless characterizations, performances. Crackling dialogue, Intelligent, stinging, adult drama, and surprisingly funny. The real thing.

Don't see it if You want sitcom humor, nudity, foul language or violence. This is engaging, uncomfortable interaction, and the talent to cut deep.

See it if You like contemporary comedy/drama ala the Mike Leigh school of drama.

Don't see it if You need to see strikingly original theater, or don't want to be right in the actors' faces.

See it if you want to see 6 extremely narcissistic characters battle it out.

Don't see it if expect the character development that you see in an Arthur Miller play

Also The 6 characters in the play have no compassion, understanding or empathy for anything except external events they have no control over.
Still it is an interesting play that held my attention. Great acting.
You might wonder why in such a modern kitchen that there was no electric dishwasher. It is amazing all the thinking you do after you walk out of this play. How about the stereotype about narcissistic millennials. I guess "baby boomers" also get a bad rap.... Read more Read less

See it if you enjoy good, detailed performances and direction.

Don't see it if you are not interested in slow, repetitious scenes in the lives of some selfish, unlikeable characters.

Also An interesting evening of very good direction and terrific work by the actors. Somehow the play never really scores and only offers a mildly interesting look into these lives.... Read more Read less

See it if You get a kick out of British accents.

Don't see it if you enjoy the "dinner play" subgenre. This slow-cooker was a bit on the underdone side.

See it if you like small theaters and great acting

Don't see it if are only into musicals

Also It did not wow me but was nice to see. Actors are great and every seat in the theater are great.

The conversation between the characters will make you think about the life .... Read more Read less

See it if you like British plays like "Abigail's Party"

Don't see it if you don't want to have to think a little and just want to be purely entertained

See it if you like contemporary English domestic/social drama

Don't see it if you want excitement or fireworks on stage

See it if You like good dialogue.,You like to see the excellent acting of Colleen Clinton as the main character Jess,.You like food double dipping.

Don't see it if You don't like a character (Annie) that looks older than her role in the play. You don't like a character (Tony) that is not believable.

See it if you like theater and dinner parties with socializing with a lot of "characters"

Don't see it if you don't enjoy cliched, slow, "verbal diarrhea" exposition, and have an urge to run away from a dinner party

See it if you want to see realism and a slice of life.

Don't see it if you want theatricality, action, or dramatic twists and turns.

See it if Great staging and direction, fantastic acting.

Don't see it if You have a hard time with British accents don't love feeling like a fly on the wall of someone's dinner party

See it if You enjoy plays full of witty banter, interruptions, and conversations with accidental ease dropping.

Don't see it if You don’t enjoy theatre that makes you consider your own life problems and how they are relative to the rest of the world’s.

Also Muswell Hill is a relavent, contemporary play that is unapologetic in its subject matter. Betts seems to be tackling many different themes throughout the play but effortlessly comes back to the main message: can we put aside our problems to focus on the bigger task at hand? Patterson’s directing is spot on and the use of the space is innovative and capturing. Carvell’s suave and handsome character, Mat, is posed nicely against his wife Jess, played by Colleen Clinton. Lily Dorment steels the show with her quirky laugh and specific dietary requests. This is a MUST SEE off-broadway production.... Read more Read less

See it if you'd like a talky upper-MC British Friends. Quirky characters are broadly-drawn/deeply-flawed. Contrast of 1st world probs/Haiti disaster.

Don't see it if you want real depth; MH is a dramedy, w/soap opera twists. Many clunky plot devices (overhearing). Still I admired the acting/direction.

Also In the background of the play is the idea that: the problems of three (or more) little people don't add up to a (Muswell) Hill of beans in this crazy world. This is not deep philosophy...this is reality. A lot of time is spent considering little people problems, many of which feel cliched. Still, MH does it with style and some humor and occasional intelligence. This was a largely pleasant evening of theater.... Read more Read less

See it if Spiffy set & top notch performances helps ease the unpleasant entitlement of well-off Brits behaving badly Author Betts never finds his tone

Don't see it if Unsure of being a dark satire or just condemning, drama misses its targets Lacking the acidity of Leigh or morality of Hare it sits in limbo

See it if You are a fan of Alan Ayckbourn and/or Mike Leigh. You like slice of life dramas. It’squite realistic, literally a British kitchen sink play

Don't see it if You can’t deal with heavy British accents. You are looking for something unusual or unbelievable. Realism is a theme throughout.

See it if you like Seinfeld with a British accent and no real likeable characters. Watch a story about nothing, with people complaining and ranting.

Don't see it if you like a show where something happens. The ending was interesting but should have been the beginning of the play.

Also There is heavy British accent and many British slang terms and when characters are facing away from you, the dialogue is hard to understand. This was a talented cast but I never cared enough for the characters so their ranting got tiresome. This was first preview so it could improve.... Read more Read less

See it if you enjoy British drama about contemporary people and problems; you prefer dialogue to action; you don't mind the mash-up of faux accents

Don't see it if you want something with action that doesn't remind you of every boring dinner party you may have attended.

Also In spite of the problems of accents and likability of the characters, I found this show engaging. The older lover did overact quite a bit, the younger sister was perhaps a bit over the top, but all in all the a c ting was good and the plot, such as it was, drew me in.... Read more Read less