Actors Claire Rushbrook and Daniel Ryan extract every nuance and layer from the characters. It’s clear from the rueful tittering, comments and applause at the end that the middle-aged couples in the audience can empathise only too well.
Read more

While 'Middle' .... has the same interest in concentrated emotional interaction [as 'Beginning'], it didn’t resonate quite as deeply. Director Polly Findlay elicits finely calibrated performances.
Read more

It comes down to the performances. Maggie detonates a bomb under the marriage in the first five minutes ... Rushbrook eloquently unpacks what brought the character to that point. Ryan’s Gary is sometimes oafish ... but more often a quietly poignant figure. Together they excavate a marital pit of regret.
Read more

The writing is at times wonderfully acute and funny ... But this recognisable honesty in the writing is undermined by odd notes of contrivance ... [it's] true to life, but not necessarily riveting drama.
Read more

Sad to say, Middle ... [lapses] into dull, meandering exchanges which ... [only] prompted ripples of laughter. Eldridge hasn’t given [the characters] enough depth, and director Polly Findlay hasn’t found a way to make the marital duel convincing enough to hold our attention.
Read more

Though sincere, Eldridge’s portrait feels too conservative and inconsequential. It basically boils down to a white, straight couple with a conventional family life, who are grappling with problems that many viewers could only dream of.
Read more

It is an arresting opening to a marital reckoning which is a confrontation with midlife itself. It feels like a true and tender representation of a marriage in its middle stages, a drama that is tepid at times, a little plodding and soft around the edges.
Read more

The ferociously low stakes rob the piece of any dramatic energy generated by the committed performances it showcases. Director Polly Findlay sets a plodding pace, lingering on long, sad silences and awkward flat beats.
Read more