Toby Stephens makes his NT debut in Howard Brenton's new version of Georg Bűchner's play.
1794: the French Revolution reaches its climax. After a series of bloody purges the life-loving, volatile Danton is tormented by his part in the killing. His political rival, the driven, ascetic Robespierre, decides Danton’s fate. A titanic struggle begins. Once friends who wanted to change the world, now one stands for compromise the other for ideological purity as the guillotine awaits.
Danton's Death
 |
2.9 (14) |  |
2.0 (1) |
| Venue | National Theatre - Olivier (click for full venue information) |
General
| Genres | 19th Century • Drama |
| Begins previews | 15 July 2010 |
| Opening | 22 July 2010 |
| Closing / Booking until | 14 October 2010 |
| Show times | In rep |
| Production website | http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/dantons |
| Prices from | £10.00 |
| To | £30.00 |
| Running time | TBC |
Cast & Creatives
- Author/Writer Georg Büchner in a new version by Howard Brenton
- Director Michael Grandage
- Designer Christopher Oram
- Lighting design Paule Constable
- Featuring Toby Stephens (makings his NT debut) in the title role plus Max Bennett, Stefano Braschi, Kirsty Bushell, Jason Cheater, Judith Coke, Emmanuella Cole, Ilan Goodman, Taylor James, Barnaby Kay (as Camille), Gwilym Lee, Elliot Levey (as Robespierre), Eleanor Matsuura, Elizabeth Nestor, Alec Newman (as St Just), Chu Omambala, Rebecca O’Mara, Rebecca Scroggs, Jonathan Warde and Ashley Zhangazh
Editor reviews
View all editor reviewsAverage editor rating from: 14 user(s)
A worthy affair that fails to engage
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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| Review | There's good stuff in the National's new version of "Danton's Death" but it's pretty hard to find. The new Howard Brenton version is ill suited to the Olivier auditorium, devoid of large scale scenes, the intimate dealings don't work well in the amphitheatre setting. |
| Written by | Rob Walport |
| Full review | http://tttcritic.blogspot.com/2010/08/dantons-death.html |
Beaucoup de Rhubarbe and pas d'action
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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| Review | It only lasts 90 minutes but feels so much longer. Its difficult to care about the "hero" when he's played as an arrogant c*nt by arrogant c*nt Toby Stephens. In fact, Danton's death is far more entertaining than any of Danton's life. |
| Written by | Not the West End Whingers |
| Full review | http://notthewestendwhingers.blogspot.com/2010/08/dantons-death-national-theatre.html |
Did Danton die a Death?
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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Any play that has working guillotine on the stage is always going to score points with Rev Stan (and if they have blood all the better). But I get ahead of myself. Danton's Death is as the presence of Mme G suggests about the French Revolution, a period of history in which my knowledge is at best sketchy. The story picks up after the monarchy has been overthrown and Danton (a long-haired Toby Stephens), one of the leaders is kicking back and enjoying the newly won liberty. He believes enough blood has been spilled and it is man's duty to enjoy the life given to them. Danton's living life to the full mainly involves wine, women and, well, he doesn't actually sing but there is definitely a lot of wine and women |
| Written by | Rev Stan |
| Full review | http://theatre.revstan.com/2010/08/did-danton-die-a-death.html |
Ranges from jarring modern colloquialism to passages blessed with genuine dramatic fire
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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Danton’s Death is rarely revived and watching Michael Grandage’s often thrilling production which opened in the Olivier last night, I wondered why. You need to do a bit of homework if your knowledge of the French Revolution is as patchy as mine, and it is true that there is a big supporting cast of argumentative political factions in which far too many of the dramatis personae fail to come to satisfyingly rounded dramatic life. But in its account of the bitter opposition between the sensual, pleasure-loving revolutionary Georges Danton, who has become sickened by the bloodshed of the Reign of Terror, and the precise, self-righteous and “incorruptible” Robespierre, who chillingly believes that butchery is the only way to preserve the purity of the revolution, Buchner created a truly gripping drama. |
| Written by | Charles Spencer |
| Full review | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/7906168/Dantons-Death-National-Theatre-review.html |
The play has not aged well
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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| Review | Fine performances, but the play itself has not aged well. Personal and political speeches alike bear the stamp of Romanticism, but not even Brenton’s playwriting skill and ideological dedication, combined with Michael Grandage’s directorial control and the strong central cast, can make these serial debates (usually laden with Roman republican allusions) vibrant. As with the Tressell adaptation, fine ideals do not necessarily translate into equally fine drama. |
| Written by | Ian Shuttleworth |
| Full review | http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1bce9a54-9673-11df-9caa-00144feab49a.html |
Absorbing
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | Michael Grandage's absorbing Olivier revival is at its best in fleshing out the psychological differences that underlie the conflicts of ideology. With his little nervy wig adjustments and squeamish recoil from the touch of others, Elliot Levey's riveting Robespierre lets you see the pained, lonely consciousness of inadequacy that here evidently fuels the Incorruptible's priggish flights of dogmatic fervour. By contrast to his adversary's enabling narrowness, Danton is a humane mass of incapacitating inconsistencies, as is brought out in a splendidly captivating portrayal by Toby Stephens. Veering between witty world-weariness and (before the Tribunal) stormy tirades of self-defence, arrogant belief in his invulnerability and philosophic despair, he strikingly conveys the contradictions in this existentialist rake who partly yearns for the death he strives to defy. |
| Written by | Paul Taylor |
| Full review | http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/dantonrsquos-death-national-theatre-olivier-london-2035299.html |
Damagingly cut
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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| Review | Grandage’s reductive approach is a waste of the Olivier’s epic potential, although the second half of this compressed version, with its dreams and nightmares and strange, jagged poetry – all very well done in Howard Brenton’s new translation from a literal version by his wife Jane Fry and the Propeller actor Simon Scardifield – is much better. |
| Written by | Michael Coveney |
| Full review | http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831279874215/Danton%27s+Death.html |
Deathly Dull
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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Reviewed by pearceglenJuly 24, 2010
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The Guillotine may have been used on Büchner’s script but this still seems deathly wordy and in need of further slicing. Danton’s Death has a reputation for being long, wordy, and not easily accessible unless you are up-to-speed on the political backdrop of the French Revolution. Yet it seems to be a perennial favourite with the National Theatre, now staging their third production of Georg Büchner epic. With the Donmar’s Michael Grandage making his NT directorial debut and an abridged script by Howard Brenton, it seems that all the stops have been pulled out to make this are more accessible production. Despite valiant attempts though, Danton’s Death, at its core, still remains a series of long speeches with little dramatic variety. Making his National Theatre debut, Toby Stephens gives a strong performance but Danton is a character you never really warm to. By the time we get to the entrance of Madame Guillotine for his death (yes the play’s title is one of the biggest plot spoilers) we don’t really care for the fate of Danton and his compatriots. The entrance of the Guillotine is one of the dramatic highpoints of the evening but comes too late to inject any real tension into the piece. |
| Written by | Glen Pearce |
| Full review | http://gpearce.blogspot.com/2010/07/dantons-death-national-theatre-olivier.html |
Dull Dull Dull
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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| Review | An interesting piece of French history turned into a dull play. |
| Written by | Gareth James |
| Full review | http://garethjames.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/dantons-death |
Good use of guillotine makes daunting Danton's Death more watchable
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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The National has done its best to render this daunting political tragedy accessible, furnishing it with a top-billing leading man (Toby Stephens) and front-rank director (the Donmar Warehouse’s Michael Grandage, making his South Bank debut), but it remains a tough ask. [...] The fate of France is discussed, at length, in a succession of nigh-on identical scenes that unfold in dark rooms illuminated by the occasional shaft of sunlight. An atmosphere of one-note portentousness threatens to settle, which Grandage partially disperses via the lighter, warmer episodes of Danton’s womanising. On this evidence, it’s surprising these men had time to do any Revolution-ing at all, such is the speechifying they have to get through. |
| Written by | Fiona Mountford |
| Full review | http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23859380-good-use-of-the-guillotine-makes-daunting-danton-more-watchable.do |
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Think this one is going to die.
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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The gentleman sitting next to me fell asleep. Despite various actors shouting loudly on stage (shouting, not always acting), he was quietly snoring away. Don't worry, you genuinely didn't miss anything. Given that we KNOW all along how this play is going to end, and given that it is quite wordey, you really need to do something interesting with it in the meantime. This production does not do that. There is some questionable casting, with a couple of actors really out of their depths. On the whole, I just didn't believe the actors in the roles they were playing. The actors didn't seem to believe them either. At times, they might as well have had the script in front of them and be reading from it at a rehearsal. Toby Stephens is disappointingly inconsistant. And yet there were some moments where it looked like this thing might just recover and take off, only to crash moments later. The staging is good (the guillotine is very clever), the costumes are a bit too pretty though, and remain strangely immacualte, even with the dialogue says that they are living in filth in a prison. The end was met with half-hearted audience applause. I saw a preview, so it might rally a bit by opening night, so I'm being a bit generous, and giving it a 2. |
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