It’s a long evening but an increasingly rewarding one, which needs only fine-tuning from Fiennes to become perhaps a great one.
Read more

Simon Godwin's modern-dress version gives it a contemporary sheen, but also a more propulsive cinematic flow, too. As splendidly designed by Hildegard Bechtler, it is both truly epic and intimate, as required.
Read more

These are fine performances, rich in detail, full of passion’s tremulous desire, yet movingly tempered by the rue of middle age...Compassionate, politically astute and psychologically perceptive.
Read more

Simon Godwin directs a terrific and epic National Theatre production, filled with passion and delusion.
Read more

Simon Godwin's production of the Shakespearean tragedy proves to be an astute and moving work.
Read more

Okonedo is magical in the first half, and Fiennes dominates the second...But this interpretation is full of detail, intelligence and humanity.
Read more

The entire endeavour shines but it is the couple at its heart that makes the play live or die and Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo are simply terrific as the lovers who tempt fate one too many times.
Read more

Come for a tour-de-force from Fiennes, but the delights here are spread right across the board, right down to the performing snake.
Read more