Network (London) London Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (6)
See it if You like a brilliant adaptation, amazing acting and a clever way of staging. Still very relevant and relatable.
Don't see it if You don’t like modern style of staging, a fast pace play and talks of political subjects.
See it if It's a fast paced and original design to a 1976 movie. It can be distracting at times with all that goes on around the stage.
Don't see it if Political issues, fast paced, many scenes and actors on stage, all at once. Audience members eating/drinking on stage.
See it if If you like Bryan Cranston, or an edgy modern play. Cranston is very good in this.
Don't see it if If you dont like a lot of acting on teleprompters. Play tries to be over the top edgy. If you want a play that has many good actors.
See it if I saw the play in London and had the intensity of the original film. Brian Cranston gives a superb performance. of equal grit as Peter
Don't see it if ... you are a strongTrumpsupporter Read more
See it if You want to see Cranston give a tour-de-force performance
Don't see it if A gimmick on stage would detract
See it if Outstanding performance by Bryan Cranston, providing character depth but with some charm and warmth. Supporting cast not memorable.
Don't see it if Still relevant story/text about television as a medium and its workings--ratings obsession, message conflicts, production & staff struggles. Read more
Critic Reviews (24)
“This revamped ‘Network’...feels as pertinent to our time as it did to its own...Cranston is the perfect stark raving center for this meticulously calibrated mayhem...Watching him romancing the cameras, and seeing him transformed into an army of simulcast selves, is one of this production’s great, disorienting pleasures. If only he didn’t have to sermonize so much...It’s when all the technological bells and whistles are operating that this ‘Network’ thrills, even as it agonizes.”
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“The whole production dances itself into distraction...Cranston glides through it all effortlessly...We can’t take our eyes of him...van Hove himself seems stuck on repeat, reusing trickery he’s deployed before — and with diminishing returns. ‘Network’ can feel like the storyboard of a show, one still lacking life. It’s deliberate...and as Hall’s script flags up the fakeries of the film, its contrived romance, it slips further...into a stilted, self-aware soap.”
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“The piece is ripe for revisiting. At the same time there's an immediate irony about this adaptation from cinema to stage...The resulting play feels more cinematic than its source...It’s bold, intelligent, funny, with a conceptual and technical swagger that is sometimes quite breathtaking...Such a sophisticated level of multimedia choreography on a stage is simply extraordinary...The result is thrilling, but also fuels the narrative...Cranston is a perfect fit for the role.”
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“There are going to be those who think...‘Network’ is an almighty fucking mess...But the whole thing is so spectacularly staged that its flaws feel like minor items...Cranston delivers a monumental performance...He is entirely in the moment and entirely thrilling...Versweyveld’s set and lighting and Yarden’s video design were stunning...’Network’ is a glowing, short-circuiting mess...And Van Hove’s electrifying staging is like mainlining it all in one million-volt hit.”
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“Van Hove seems to have found the perfect material for his modish aesthetic here...He utilizes an impressive technological box of tricks...Everywhere there is motion, confusion, distraction...This editing job is faithful to the original...proving Chayefsky prophetic...Cranston’s Beale looks terrific in the many close-ups...he starts off recognizably ordinary...and moves by degrees from a wild-man in his underpants to an ethereal, inspiring presence...It works.”
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“’Network’ turns the theatre into a live event cinema...We've seen this before...but this time the form is a commentary on itself, and it also feels like the director is recycling himself...The actors are subservient at all times to the technology...There's too much of Cranston on a TV screen...The production chases the thrill of immediacy at all costs...There's plenty of food for provocative thought here. But the film still exists and I'm not sure we needed to revisit it in this form.”
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“The 'Breaking Bad' star is magnetic as a raging anchorman in writer Lee Hall and director Ivo van Hove’s extraordinary version of the prophetic satire...A tremendous performance enhanced by the decision...to treat the stage as if it were a studio...The performances are as animated as the staging...But the success of the show lies in its capacity to use every facet of live theatre to warn us against surrendering our humanity to an overpowering medium.”
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“At times everything’s so hectic that you’re not sure where to look...Yet Cranston’s performance supplies the human heartbeat amid the staging’s shiny machinery. Diana is a soulless creature, but Dockery plays her with appetite, and Henshall’s Schumacher has the slumped, bitter despair of a man who knows his time has passed. The whole glossy, hectoring, lurid package has an undeniable charge and compulsion...It’s not always a pretty sight. But it’s almost impossible to look away.”
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