Set in the present day, but inspired by ancient myth, Moira Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes offers a passionate exploration of an encounter between the world’s richest and the world’s poorest countries set in the aftermath of a brutal war.
Welcome To Thebes
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3.7 (15) |  |
0.0 (0) |
| Venue | National Theatre - Olivier (click for full venue information) |
General
| Genres | 21st Century |
| Begins previews | 15 June 2010 |
| Opening | 22 June 2010 |
| Closing / Booking until | 12 September 2010 |
| Show times | In rep |
| Production website | http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/57271/productions/welcome-to-thebes.html |
| Prices from | £10.00 |
| To | £30.00 |
| Running time | TBC |
Cast & Creatives
- Author/Writer Moira Buffini
- Choreography Scarlett Mackmin
- Director Richard Eyre
- Designer Tim Hatley
- Lighting design Neil Austin
- Featuring Nikki Amuka-Bird, David Harewood, Madeline Appiah, Rakie Ayola, Omar Brown, Jessie Burton, Jacqueline Defferary, Daniel Fine, Karlina Grace, Rene Gray, Tracy Ifeachor, Irma Inniss, Chuk Iwuji, Alexia Khadime, Ferdinand Kingsley, Aicha Kossoko, Simon Manyonda, Bruce Myers, Pamela Nomvete, Calre Perkins, Victor Power, Daniel Poyser, Joy Richardson, Vinette Robinson, Zara Tempest-Walters and Michael Wildman.
Editor reviews
View all editor reviewsAverage editor rating from: 15 user(s)
Long and stodgy.
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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| Review | "Welcome To Thebes" is a big, ambitious piece. It's also a not infrequently, surprisingly banal one. Intellectual posturing a disappointing replacement for drama and emotion. There's plenty of interest here but you've got to wade through far too much piffle to get to it. Worthy maybe but not great theatre. |
| Written by | Rob Walport |
| Full review | http://tttcritic.blogspot.com/2010/07/welcome-to-thebes.html |
Incoherent rubbish
| Rating: | 2.0 |
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Reviewed by zuberinoAugust 18, 2010
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Moira Buffini's dull and confusing script meets Richard Eyre's ponderous, patronizing direction. The result is an excruciatingly long two-and-a-half hours. War in Africa can be the subject of brilliant theatre, as shown by the recent production of Ruined at the Almeida. Sadly, last night's pompous shoutfest was very far off the mark. Even acting talent like Harewood and Iwuji couldn't salvage this wreck. The Observer at the Cottesloe last year was a passable play. But with Welcome to Thebes, Richard Eyre's African shtick is starting to wear pretty thin. I hope he stops trying to "do Africa" on stage, period. |
A potent mix of both classical and the immediate
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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Reviewed by pearceglenJuly 30, 2010
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At once both classical and immediate, Moira Buffini’s new play, Welcome To Thebes, is a shining example of what the National Theatre does best. Taking classic Greek drama and transposing them into a modern, unnamed African country, Buffini cleverly intertwines both ancient and modern into a potent reflection on current world troubles. |
| Written by | Glen Pearce |
| Full review | http://gpearce.blogspot.com/2010/07/welcome-to-thebes-national-theatre.html |
A very intelligent and very good new play at the National!
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | Greek legend cleverly moved to a present day war-torn African country, brilliantly staged with a terrific ensemble |
| Written by | Gareth James |
| Full review | http://garethjames.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/welcome-to-thebes |
Vivid and deeply stirring
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | The scope and ambition of Moira Buffini's new play, which yokes contemporary politics with classical tragedy, is awesome. And in a suitably epic production by Richard Eyre, it's vital, gripping, intelligent and passionate. It's also sprawling and at times unfocused - but then, for a depiction of a conflict-ravaged state on its knees, struggling to stand up amid the rubble and rebuild, even that doesn't seem entirely inappropriate. |
| Written by | Sam Marlowe |
| Full review | http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/event/184991/welcome-to-thebes |
The most unpleasant and most riveting play I have seen for some considerable time
| Rating: | 5.0 |
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| Review | If Buffini’s verse sometimes grows a little purple, it is the purple of a bruise. Ancient and modern, atavism and civilisation, reason and compulsion, myth and reality constantly clash and send out sparks, as we sit amid the storm, racked by this demonstration that we cannot choose only one set of values and wish away the others. |
| Written by | Ian Shuttleworth |
| Full review | http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e0038286-7fdf-11df-91b4-00144feabdc0.html |
A vivid, expertly marshalled production
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | Performed on Tim Hatley's spectacular set, of wrecked palace and glowering sky, Welcome to Thebes plays some irreverent tricks. Mischievously, the tragedy of Phaedra and Hippolytus is filtered through mobile phone calls that keep Theseus briefed about problems back home. In a running sight-gag, the blinded Haemon unerringly chats up the wrong girl. The mock-heroic mood is enhanced by the down-to-earth and pragmatic female cabinet, as when the Minister of Justice cuts Theseus down to size by telling him Thebes hopes to learn from Athens' mistakes. |
| Written by | Paul Taylor |
| Full review | http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/welcome-to-thebes-national-theatre-london-2008687.html |
Wonderfully rich and fascinating
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | None of it is particularly uplifting: if this is the way the world is going, then the sooner we tune out of it the better, you feel. But the performances have such spirit, backed up by the onstage percussive music of Stephen Warbeck, that you come out feeling ennobled by people’s perennial ability to see their struggle in the context of global and political tectonic shifts; and, in the theatre, the ongoing resonance of the great myths and stories. |
| Written by | Michael Coveney |
| Full review | http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831277283997/Welcome+to+Thebes.html |
Ambitious, at times impudent, and blazingly topical
| Rating: | 3.0 |
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| Review | While this is a substantial and politically serious piece, it’s tonally uneven. Some of the Greek motifs are clumsily introduced, and the focus is uncertain. The drama has no true centre and, although the story is impressive in scale, the writing is bumpy — at times incendiary but marred by cliché. It’s busy and interesting yet also uncomfortably baggy. |
| Written by | Henry Hitchings |
| Full review | http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23848167-welcome-to-thebes-is-a-very-african-greek-tragedy.do |
AMBITIOUS AND WELL EXECUTED.
| Rating: | 4.0 |
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| Review | Given the dire state of affairs, the graphic description of the brutalities of war and the child soldiers who continue to point guns, it's surprising that Buffini has been able to spot so many opportunities to make a joke and make them well. Much of this is welcome, but for a play that has the potential to be so much more moving, the flickers of comedy lessen the intensity. |
| Written by | Naima Khan |
| Full review | http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/spooners/naimakhan-6622/welcome-to-thebes-at-national-theatre-3205/ |
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