“This revamped ‘Network’...feels as pertinent to our time as it did to its own...Cranston is the perfect stark raving center for this meticulously calibrated mayhem...Watching him romancing the cameras, and seeing him transformed into an army of simulcast selves, is one of this production’s great, disorienting pleasures. If only he didn’t have to sermonize so much...It’s when all the technological bells and whistles are operating that this ‘Network’ thrills, even as it agonizes.”
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“The whole production dances itself into distraction...Cranston glides through it all effortlessly...We can’t take our eyes of him...van Hove himself seems stuck on repeat, reusing trickery he’s deployed before — and with diminishing returns. ‘Network’ can feel like the storyboard of a show, one still lacking life. It’s deliberate...and as Hall’s script flags up the fakeries of the film, its contrived romance, it slips further...into a stilted, self-aware soap.”
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“The piece is ripe for revisiting. At the same time there's an immediate irony about this adaptation from cinema to stage...The resulting play feels more cinematic than its source...It’s bold, intelligent, funny, with a conceptual and technical swagger that is sometimes quite breathtaking...Such a sophisticated level of multimedia choreography on a stage is simply extraordinary...The result is thrilling, but also fuels the narrative...Cranston is a perfect fit for the role.”
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“’Network’ turns the theatre into a live event cinema...We've seen this before...but this time the form is a commentary on itself, and it also feels like the director is recycling himself...The actors are subservient at all times to the technology...There's too much of Cranston on a TV screen...The production chases the thrill of immediacy at all costs...There's plenty of food for provocative thought here. But the film still exists and I'm not sure we needed to revisit it in this form.”
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“The 'Breaking Bad' star is magnetic as a raging anchorman in writer Lee Hall and director Ivo van Hove’s extraordinary version of the prophetic satire...A tremendous performance enhanced by the decision...to treat the stage as if it were a studio...The performances are as animated as the staging...But the success of the show lies in its capacity to use every facet of live theatre to warn us against surrendering our humanity to an overpowering medium.”
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“While Hall’s adaptation is faithful and affectionate, it also speaks vividly to the present...van Hove has created a brilliant and occasionally bewildering spectacle...It can be hard to know where to look, and that’s the point...The result is two hours of mind-boggling complexity. Sometimes the technical wizardry upsets its momentum. But the show's energy is sustained by Cranston, giving one of the richest and most agonising performances...a King Lear for the soundbite age.”
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“Some fine acting loses out to sheer sensory cacophony...The set infuriated me. It was like a teenager’s bedroom — but crazier...There was only one small bit of the stage that was left for actual acting...Cranston is brilliant...He takes his tiny bit of stage and owns it. He’s messianic, composed, gravelly voiced, both sensible and insane...Hall’s adapted script is slow to take off; about halfway through...it finds its pace. The outrage feels real but the satire lacked a savage edge.”
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“Van Hove’s staging is the most triumphant demonstration I have seen of his concepts of space, multimedia, and audience/performance relationships...Cranston is everything you might expect and hope...Supporting attractions include a carnivorous Kasim and an episcopal Cordery. Dockery’s performance is perhaps hampered...but she makes the most of what she is given as a prophet of reality TV.”
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