See it if You want a fairly funny show and are willing to suspend your disbelief at the believablity.
Don't see it if You want a believable story. I found the main character a bit too unrealistic
See it if you are a fan of Fay Ripley or you're in the mood for a slow comedy full of cliches that doesn't require any thinking...
Don't see it if you want to see something smart or thought-provoking OR if you like plays with plots broader than "daily nonsense of a gobby person". Read more
See it if You can enjoy swearing words, want to see all the problems of contemporary world on the stage in one go.
Don't see it if You are sensitive to some topics they explorer.
See it if you want to see a new play that explores societal issues and has funny moments
Don't see it if you expect the issues explored to be fleshed out well. The ending is horrendous and excuses the problematic actions of the protagonist
See it if you'd like to see a play that doesn't force the same predictable socio-political ideology perpetually peddled from the National's stages.
Don't see it if the Guardian is your moral playbook; you are easily triggered by confrontational perspectives or language. Read more
See it if You are a fan of Fay Ripley
Don't see it if The play lacked real depth and a clear message.
See it if You love Fay Ripley and the performances are great.
Don't see it if The play doesn’t know what it wants to be. Tonally it’s all over the place and the characters feel very cliched.
See it if Wouldn't recommend it
Don't see it if The actors did not listen to each other, they were running lines. The story is predictable. There is nothing new and no character advances.
" ‘Kerry Jackson’ threatens to be an incisive drama about class stereotypes and gentrification; it settles for abject mediocrity instead."
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"You could tie yourself in knots forever over the complications and questions this play throws up, but it is ultimately a theatrical sitcom: engineered confrontations, sudden revelations, big laughs."
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"The best bits come when characters stop talking and start dancing, with a sweet sense of girls behaving badly as Kerry and Athena blast up the music, but that can’t save this play from sinking."
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"The musical interludes are eccentric at best, but at least they give us a break from the wretched dialogue."
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"The final scene posits a way forward for two antithetical personalities that is entirely preposterous. No matter: By that point, I’d clocked Kerry’s self-comparison to 'a bad fairy'."
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"It’s essentially a feeble, overstretched skit, so simplistic that it insults the communities it purports to portray, as well as the intelligence of its audience."
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"If this is the best that flagship new writing can offer then I can only despair."
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"This a precariously crude and flimsy scaffold on which to hang a state-of-the-nation conversation, it’s impossible to take these people seriously when De Angelis presents them both as such blunt instruments of satire and such crass cultural ciphers."
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