Britannicus (London) London Reviews and Tickets
Critic Reviews (9)
The knot of political, filial and incestuous sexual tension in the story is so tight and specific that the idea of contemporary relevance is laughable ... all the way through I kept thinking – why here, why now, why make this more difficult than it already is?
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The play’s 17th-century language is exquisitely updated and has a crystalline, lucid quality. Every performance is fabulous. So is Rosanna Vize’s stage design. It is [an] irresistible ... piece of theatre.
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This assured revival at the Lyric Hammersmith is the mother of all psycho-dramas. Some of the minimalist touches ... are inspired.
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Even so, this modern-dress interpretation ... doesn’t find an answer to the perennial question of how to find a replacement for the stately music of French classical verse. Wertenbaker’s text is more jagged and demotic, making those long scenes of exposition much, much harder to absorb.
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The evening proves among other things that Banerjee, a onetime press officer at the National Theatre, is a talent to watch. The cast tends to find a particular note and play it ... But those up for the ride will be intrigued throughout.
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Strong central performances can’t lift this fussily staged revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s historical adaptation. Standing out among an uneven cast, Sirine Saba is excellent as the coldly manipulative Agrippina.
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There's an elegance and ingenuity to [the] design and ... lighting. It's a slightly uneven production that contains many fine things but ultimately doesn't quite live up to it's exciting visual promise.
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This production feels like a masterclass in how to take a seldom-staged ... text and seduce an audience into confronting it, in all its writhing, sexy ugliness.
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