Farm Hall Reviews – Theatre Royal Haymarket London

"War, Nazi scientists and great theatrical chemistry"

"This short but intense drama at the Theatre Royal Haymarket about German boffins under surveillance in 1945 Cambridgeshire turns equations into flesh and blood"

"I can imagine just about every seat in this run being snapped up by the kind of people who are addicted to popular history podcasts such as The Rest Is History and We Have Ways of Making You Talk. The first-time playwright Katherine Moar has, you see, stumbled across a lesser-known story from the Second World War and turned it into a compelling chamber drama."

"I thoroughly enjoyed its premiere last year at Jermyn Street Theatre. And the good news is that if that venue’s tiny auditorium enhanced the sense of high-powered intellects and bruised egos jostling for attention, Stephen Unwin’s production has lost none of its sharpness in the journey to a much bigger stage in the West End."

"Julius D’Silva once again catches the eye as the self-pitying Nazi loyalist Diebner, but the rest of the performances from Archie Backhouse, Daniel Boyd, Forbes Masson and the silky David Yelland are first-rate too."

"Spied on in an English country house, explosive rows of the Nazi Oppenheimers"

"Why didn’t the Germans build the bomb first? Could they have tried harder? These are some of the intriguing questions posed by Katherine Moar in her engaging, drawing-room drama set in the dying days of World War II."

"Cox lends charm and self-doubt to Heisenberg (famous for his uncertainty principle), who had been suspected by Hitler’s henchmen of being a ‘white Jew’ for teaching the work of Albert Einstein. And, as if thumbing his nose at Oppenheimer and the Americans, he sketches his own blueprint for a nuclear bomb on a sleepless night."

"Stephen Unwin’s tidy production may only detonate comparatively modest theatrical explosions, but it’s still a thoughtful and amusing historical snapshot."

"Debut plays seldom come more gripping than this"

"Katherine Moar’s Second World War drama, exploring the complex ethics surrounding the atom bomb, works superbly in its West End transfer"

"... there are terrible moments at the start when we fear that what went down well in a 70-seat space will look hopelessly over-exposed and underpowered on the Haymarket’s lofty stage. Gradually, delightfully, our anxieties are assuaged as Moar and confident director Stephen Unwin settle us into this fascinating but little-known true story"

"... at the end of the first half there comes the era-defining news that the Americans have built an atomic bomb and dropped it on Japan. The sparks truly start to fly after this, as the group begins with recriminations over past rivalries, before moving into murkier terrain."

"The mere mention of the word “physics” customarily makes me shiver in solidarity with my bemused 13-year-old self, but Moar persuaded me to sit up and pay keen attention – and I am extremely glad that she did."

"Country-house drama goes nuclear"

"Not a great deal happens in Farm Hall. At least not in the room we are watching. But that’s partly the point of Katherine Moar’s quietly fascinating play."

"Moar’s compelling chamber drama — first seen at London’s tiny Jermyn Street Theatre — draws on real-life events"

"To some degree Moar digs over ground already superbly dramatised in plays such as Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen and CP Taylor’s Good. This is not as deeply subtle a piece as those works: the issues are rather baldly stated and the structure makes it too static. But Moar has her own quiet, often droll style, making neat use of cultural references to illuminate the role of art in conflict and wittily depicting the mix of brilliance, insecurity and egocentricity that affects the characters."

"They are uniformly well played by a fine ensemble in Stephen Unwin’s deftly shaped production"

"Entertaining"

"Mannered but intellectually gripping exploration of the Nazi’s pursuit of the atom bomb"

"The drama lies not in the actions of characters storming in and out of doors but in the – sometimes heavily laid on – debates. The play is at its best when all six are on stage, acting as facets of a prism through which we glimpse the utterly self-sabotaging racism of the Nazi regime, which got rid of many of its best – and Jewish – scientists in pursuit of ideology."

"Unwin’s mannered style of direction works best when it syncs up with the scientists awkwardly mouthing regrets just in case someone is listening in. It fits well with the play’s interest in how people are always rehearsing how they want to be seen by the future. And its meandering has sharpened into focus by the time Heisenberg stands alone on stage, making his plea to us for our understanding."