“A play of contemporary manners, lampooning the upper classes in the very area of London that they congregate should be a clever, satirical piece of writing. However, Mullarkey's script is meandering, unfunny and full of unfinished ideas.”
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“Sam Pritchard’s production feels pacey and energetic, and although it sometimes struggles to pull together all of it’s narrative threads there’s more than enough here to make it an enjoyable evening. ‘Mates In Chelsea’ is braver than it first appears, taking satire to a level where some might not even realise that’s what it’s intended to be.”
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“There are cracks against the class system, entrenched British inequality and abuses of power by the rich and aristocratic, but ‘Mates in Chelsea’ is too disparate in focus to be a straight parody, nor does it have real bite as a comedy of manners. It does demonstrate well how disposed we are to laugh at large Russian accents.”
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“There are game performances all round, but the largely excellent cast just don’t have the material to work with...‘Mates in Chelsea’ feels like a toothless shadow of that high watermark, a bankrupt descendent, destined to be forgotten.”
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“You could argue that, like its superfluous anti-hero, the piece dabbles intellectually rather than fully dissects its subject...But through laughter and unexpected invitations to empathy, it valuably wrestles with the state we’re in, depicting, in Tug’s final mate-lessness, a social divide that looks as unsustainable as it is undesirable.”
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“After enduring this puerile would-be comedy by Rory Mullarkey I’m once again left wondering how an institution that was once renowned for being bold and innovative manages to keep unearthing new writing that is so feeble.”
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“The actors all remain admirably committed, and the production as a whole is diverting, even if the material is badly overstretched. But as a work of satire in a time of deepening inequality, when overconfident, underprepared toffs much like Tug and Charlton have wrought lasting damage on the nation, this is unforgivably toothless.”
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"A lot of the humour depends on the funny foreigner stereotypes — a variety of heavy accents — beloved of British playwrights, and this tends to undercut Mullarkey’s serious points about how the childish and impoverished British aristos are fair game for worldly and loaded Russian tycoons."
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