Lyonesse review: an 'utter embarrassment' all round
Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James are 'hamstrung' by an incoherent script

"Very occasionally, a play comes along that is so weirdly inept that you don't quite know how to respond," said Clive Davis in The Times. Were you to stumble across Penelope Skinner's "shambles" of a play at the Edinburgh Fringe, "you could put it down to an undergrad experiment". To find it in the West End – with Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James in lead roles – is baffling and infuriating, when you consider how much theatregoers will have paid to see it, many lured by the presence of two stars who are incapable of redeeming the material. Scott Thomas, playing a once-famous actress who now lives as a virtual recluse in Cornwall, "exhibits no gift for comic timing, but simply raises her voice and hopes for the best". James, as the film executive sent to extract her life story, "looks out of her depth throughout". It's an "utter embarrassment" all round.
I didn't think the performances were the problem, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Scott Thomas is charming as the eccentric actress, who took flight from a controlling partner years ago, and who here acts out her past for the visiting executive. And James convinces as the ambitious young mother, who is herself in a toxic relationship. But neither character is properly developed and both stars are "hamstrung" by an incoherent script that speaks "its themes through exposition".
These themes arrive thick and fast, said Matt Wolf in The New York Times. Over its nearly three hours, "#MeToo, cancel culture, the tyranny of men" and many others are covered in a play that veers awkwardly between "near-slapstick" and "speechifying". Watching it is like "tumbling down a never-ending rabbit hole of bewilderment", said Fiona Mountford in The i Paper. It is "the most barking play the West End has seen in a long time".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
My suspicion is that Skinner was aiming for absurdism, said Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard. Sadly, what she has ended up with is more an "assemblage of half-baked ideas and lazy conceits". The mystery is why two big name actors (and director Ian Rickson) signed up to it. "As star vehicles go, it's a car crash."
Harold Pinter Theatre, London SW1 (0844-871 7627; lyonesseonstage.com). Until 23 December. Rating *: stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (5 stars=don't miss; 1 star=don't bother)
Sign up to The Week's Arts & Life newsletter for reviews and recommendations
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
July 6 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include paying for school lunch by enlisting, and the banality of evil
-
5 biting editorial cartoons about 'Alligator Alcatraz'
Cartoons Artists take on dangerous green things, historical precedent, and more
-
A journey into the deep past on beautiful Arran
The Week Recommends New Unesco Global Geopark played a 'key role' in the birth of modern geological science
-
Jeff in Venice: a 'triumph of tackiness'?
In the Spotlight Locals protest as Bezos uses the city as a 'private amusement park' for his wedding celebrations
-
The Anatomy of Painting: Jenny Saville's 'stunning' retrospective
The Week Recommends Saville's new collection features 'masterpieces' from throughout her career
-
M3GAN 2.0: riotous action sequel to the comedy-horror hit about a killer doll
The Week Recommends A 'ridiculously' entertaining 'hyper-camp mash-up' of Terminator 2 and Mission: Impossible
-
Properties of the week: bright and cheerful houses
The Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, London and Norfolk
-
Shami Chakrabarti picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The politician and human rights activist shares the polemics that inspired her
-
6 sleek homes for modernists
Feature Featuring a concrete-and-steel home in South Carolina and a renovated 19th-century former carriage house in Pennsylvania
-
The Genius Myth: a 'fresh and unpretentious' book from Helen Lewis
The Week Recommends This 'angry, witty book' by Helen Lewis is a valuable critique of the 'flattering fiction' of genius
-
From Hilde, With Love – the 'moving' story of an accidental revolutionary
The Week Recommends Liv Lisa Fries gives a 'compelling' performance as the soft-spoken heroine.