"A triumphant show that fully justifies the hype...Mendes’s richly textured production his farmhouse kitchen is a place teeming with vitality...There are some similarities here to Butterworth’s last smash hit, 'Jerusalem,' not least a sense of the mystique of rural life. Yet 'The Ferryman' has its own distinct tang of humour and menace. A feast of intricate storytelling, it’s absorbing, soulful and ultimately shattering."
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“Mendes’ direction of the enormous cast is exquisite. The pacing of the action, the timing of the speeches, the nuanced acting he inspires are impeccable. The entire cast functions as a single organism, all members working toward the single goal of opening our minds to a mystery involving the irony of the illusion of freedom and the invisible bonds of fate...Essential viewing not just for its immaculate direction and performances but for the high relevance of its content.”
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"This enormous, shattering eruption of a play...Vast, a play that's formally conventional but has an ambition that's out of this world...It succeeds. But despite the teeming cast and interwoven plot lines it remains intimate...Even though lengthy stretches are nothing more than generations bickering at the breakfast table, nothing feels wasted, every strand is respected, Mendes choreographs everything to perfection...Left me genuinely stunned."
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"A classic, bustling domestic comedy in which an extended family lives in contented close quarters and everybody chips in to help. Of course, in this clan, even the little ones swear like sailors on a bender...Butterworth specializes in making what might be too much from anybody else feel somehow exactly right. Life as he portrays it is so expansive, only myth and melodrama can accommodate its dimensions."
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"A ripping thriller in a big family home, stuffed with eccentricity and black comedy, it swells into an expansive examination of Republican history, politics and identity, as tied up with the IRA...It’s a tumbling and tumultuous play, one that swerves off into storytelling, song and dance, and debate, without taking its eye off the need for suspense. It’s a thriller that bursts the bounds of its genre, but never forgets what makes the form tick...The tension is as electric as it is symbolic."
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“Those lucky enough to score tickets are unlikely to be disappointed, as this is a consistently absorbing, emotionally rich and beautifully executed work of theater. For some, however, the only mild reservation might be that it's clearly a work that already has crowned itself Serious Theater about Big Themes, pandering to expectations with show-stopping monologues, adorably potty-mouthed pre-pubescent kids and cuddly live animals onstage."
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“There is something about Jez Butterworth’s great hunking slab of meat of a new play – all juicy and succulent and dripping in blood – that compels one to make human contact...Bang-out brilliant show – directed with verve and control by Sam Mendes...At its heart, ‘The Ferryman’ is an impassioned search for a true and lasting definition of ‘family’. Butterworth tests and tweaks this definition at every turn.”
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"A rich, serious, deeply involving play about the shadows of the past and the power of silent love...What gives Butterworth’s play such shattering force is its Hardyesque love of rural rituals and its compassionate exploration of unspoken love...The power of Mendes’s terrific production...lies in its ability to combine scrupulous naturalism with a sense of the mysterious."
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