David Mamet’s little-performed 1977 duologue, The Woods, returns to London 21 years after it first premiered, in Russell Bolam’s confident production that never manages to escape the fundamental limitations of its text.
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No such entertaining unpredictability is on show here; despite serving up an efficient and sincere production, cast and crew cannot clear a persuasive thicket through The Woods.
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But the 75 minutes or so to that point make for a real slog, and Francesca Carpanini, the gifted American actress here marking her London debut, deserves better next time round.
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But it's hard not to feel that all their care and attention would have been better lavished on a more insightful play that had rather more to say about the relationships between men and women than this stale and dated chamber piece.
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Two tiresome and immature people go round in circles for 90 minutes. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of this early David Mamet play...Russell Bolam’s charmless production fails to make the case for digging it out of the bottom drawer.
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David Mamet’s odd if intriguing two-hander from 1977 is probably one of his lesser-known plays for good reason...but Russell Bolam’s revival offers a meditation on how far sexual politics have progressed.
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