Cuckoo London Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (13)
See it if You like accents. The actors have done real justice to the Scouse lingo.
Don't see it if You are looking something more than mundane family drama.
See it if Interesting set up of multi generational household that doesn't go anywhere.
Don't see it if you are not intersted in women's drama(s)
See it if To appreciate the cast performances
Don't see it if You are expecting laugh out loud performances - it was a struggle at times to keep up
See it if you have seen plays by Michael Wynne and like his writing or you want to see a play about a moody teenager being a moody teenager.
Don't see it if you expect a play that's entertaining or thought-provoking or clever or has some unexpected plot twists; 15 mins in you'll know how it ends. Read more
See it if Your thing is realism and good performances. This play delves into the intricacies of everyday challenges.
Don't see it if You seek thought-provoking and edgy subjects this might appear pointless
See it if You want to see some fabulous actors navigate through a bafflingly terrible script
Don't see it if You don't want to see some fabulous actors navigate through a bafflingly terrible script Read more
See it if You like plays. If you come from the Liverpool area. It’s a bit slow in places and the ending is a tad anticlimactic but still worth seeing.
Don't see it if You get bored easily, or like fast moving multi location pieces.
See it if You want to get a taste of modern theater - although it's not that much of a story with an end
Don't see it if You like stories that are too real, similar to your chats at the dinner table
Critic Reviews (14)
“The family dynamic is wonderfully enchanting, the bittersweet chemistry palpable from the outset thanks to subtle but towering performances...It will remind you of a very literal home truth: that family is the ballast we tie ourselves to whatever the storms that life throws at us. It can weigh us down but without it we would be lost.”
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“Baffling. That’s the only word to describe Michael Wynne’s play...I kept waiting for something to happen. But hardly anything does.”
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“While it’s totally fair that Wynne doesn’t opt for a sudden late shift into melodrama, I was left fairly frustrated by the wilfully understated, largely silent ending, which hints at various resolutions but never fully embraces any of them. The kitchen sink format begs an explosive climax and without it, ‘Cuckoo’ feels robbed of something – it’s a distant rumble of thunder, a storm that never breaks.”
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“Michael Wynne...typically writes in a comic register and ‘Cuckoo’s’ humour – sometimes ebullient, other times mordant – fires the drama. There are times, though, when the play, directed by Vicky Featherstone, wavers and is in danger of coming to a standstill.”
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“Wynne’s domestic affair finally feels too slight to sound the depths of our current malaise. Diverting as a summer filler, it still smacks of an opportunity wasted.”
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“Michael Wynne’s new play, set in his beloved Birkenhead, gives us recognisably working-class figures who spend the opening minutes eating fish and chips in the living room. Not a great leap forward in dramaturgy, I admit, but it’s better than being subjected to yet another sophomoric political lecture.”
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“ ‘Cuckoo’ is alarming, to be sure, and highly entertaining too.”
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“...this drama is so bland and plot-lite – until its contrived 11th-hour revelations – that it seems interminable...Like a couple of hours lost to Twitter, this play passes the time, but leaves you questioning what, if anything, you really got out of it.”
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