Manor London Reviews and Tickets

‘Manor’ is a misfiring state-of-the-nation satire that doesn’t work, but is enjoyably messy nonetheless. As [it] heads for the interval, it’s actually quite intriguing ... [but] the second half is basically nonsense.
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Despite the gravity of the play’s themes it has a prevailingly saggy sitcom vibe. It is topped off with unconvincing performances all round.
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Some plays are so awful that they almost become enjoyable. Moira Buffini’s breathtakingly inept satire ... lurches from one improbable scene to another before sinking with all hands. It’s cataclysmic, certainly, but not in the way the writer intended.
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After its brilliant set-up, it always feels as if it is straining towards its purpose, with its characters as symbols rather than as real, rooted human beings. It's all a bit schematic, but it contains some excellent performances.
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While director Fiona Buffini engineers a couple of moments of tension, the pacing is erratic and the plotting muddled. The play contains some richly written passages ... but at other times it’s blunt and heavy-handed.
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Speeches are utterly explicit, laying out attitudes as if serving them up on platters. For this to work as a comic motor it needs to be helter-skelter hocus-pocus, but the pace is glacial.
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'Manor' ends up saying very little, except for a generic appeal to love one another and to see that “in our differences, we are the same”, a trite conclusion to come to after almost three hours.
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