Cold War London Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (21)
See it if You want to enjoy a delicate musical, with a love story as a thread during difficult times.
Don't see it if You don't like love stories on musicals.
See it if You're after a captivating, depressing play, with exquisite performances from all
Don't see it if you have an aversion to herbal cigarettes
See it if you enjoy a sweeping epic examining a relationship and identity through the lens of the Cold War in Poland and Europe, like Doctor Zhivago
Don't see it if you want a happy ending - it's bleak and nihilistic and hopeless in the extreme; more of the political side of things like Patriots Read more
See it if You like stories about complex relationships. Anya and Luke are great on stage.
Don't see it if Personally, I couldn't connect with the story, didn't particularly like the songs and thought it lacked context at points.
See it if you want to see a good production with great staging, music and dancing parts. also, if you want to get absorbed in soviet times atmosphere
Don't see it if you watched the original movie and don’t want to spoil the vibe. also, if you’re getting bored easily
See it if For half of act 1
Don't see it if For act 2…. Oh dear lord, leave in the interval! Read more
See it if You like a very simplistic love story
Don't see it if You want action. This is such a slight slow and the evening dragged.
See it if You enjoy beautiful theatre with a challenging story
Don't see it if You want something lighthearted
Critic Reviews (10)
“Goold’s production is vividly designed, embracing bright peasant garb and left-bank boho chic, Iron Curtain apparatchik offices and smoky, spotlit clubs...I didn’t have any of this on my dance card for theatre in December, but ‘Cold War’ is a brilliantly bitter antidote to standard Christmas fare.”
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“...this country’s enormous Polish population has little visibility in popular culture, and I feel there was an opportunity missed to do more here. With that said, I’m going to declare glasnost, because frankly ‘Cold War’ is beautiful.”
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“With a translation by Conor McPherson, the Almeida's stage premiere of Paweł Pawlikowski’s bleak 2018 film ‘Cold War’ is a triumph”
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“It’s an unusual and original show, one that haunts you long after you leave the theatre, its essential sadness sweetened by tinges of hope and a deep humanity.”
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“For all its moments of stark loveliness, dramatically the play doesn’t satisfy. But it’s like an emotional bruise, tenderly and insistently inflicted.”
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“To call ‘Cold War’ enjoyable feels like a contradiction, given the dark sombre nature of the story and the inevitable doom that awaits it. It manages to convey these difficult themes very well, though the tone of the show did get lost along the way at times and led to a slight pacing problem. Still a beautiful albeit harrowing story in its own right, ‘Cold War’ is bolstered by phenomenal performances, impressive writing and stunning direction.”
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“There are several flashes of scarred beauty, but there’s a feeling of it being unfinished: a tighter script, real chemistry between the leads and a fully Polish score would all lend considerably more power.”
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"What the piece forcefully communicates, though, is the serious pain of statelessness and of not knowing where you belong, a sadly perennial theme. It gives the couple’s romance a bittersweet kick, without destroying its tenderness."
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