Unicorn Reviews Round-up – Starring Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan & Erin Doherty at the West End’s Garrick Theatre

"This threesome comedy is more thoughtful than titillating"

"Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan are a dream team as a couple who bring a third partner into the mix"

"Rubs eyes in disbelief: here’s a rare sighting of that mythologised species – the new, well-made, West End play."

"Mike Bartlett’s intricately entertaining latest also foregrounds thoughts on how we might be tempted to escape the conformism of everyday coupledom... (the title, Unicorn, alludes to the practice of ‘unicorn hunting’, whereby a heterosexual couple bring a third partner into the mix). But oh the difference in sophistication, wit and insight."

"Bartlett is in a line with Harold Pinter in making every word count."

"In an evening that takes pleasure in deferring consummation – there are various twists and leaps in narrative – before a subtle, stirring denouement"

"Is three the magic number in bed?"

"Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty supercharge this comedy about an older couple who invite a younger woman into their bed"

"In terms of watchability, a cast made up of Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty is pretty hard to beat. The trio’s relatable charisma, and the residual associations of their TV roles in The Split and The Crown (where Doherty played the young Princess Anne) add mightily to the enjoyment of Mike Bartlett’s play"

"Though the play has flaws, and falls apart completely at the end, it’s never less than a rollicking, stimulating ride. If you’ll pardon the expression."

"Mangan is hugely adroit at playing this sort of anguished overthinking, especially when Nick’s urges conflict with his liberal self-image: turns out he’s a wolf in sheepish clothing. Walker, always magnetic, has the sharper part, more analytical but also more intuitive.... Kate is the least convincing character but Doherty makes her real."

"Unicorn is pretty sexy by West End standards, exercises the brain as well as other organs and features beguiling performances from its three stars. In other words, it’s great fun while it lasts."

"Erin Doherty, Stephen Mangan and Nicola Walker rise to the challenge in Mike Bartlett’s witty dissection of a throuple"

"Every Mike Bartlett drama requires a particular dexterity from its performers... In Unicorn, a terrific trio of actors – Erin Doherty, Stephen Mangan and Nicola Walker – are required to hover between lightness and pain. They have to make an explosive proposition seem not only plausible but promising. They need to register, with minimal action, considerable change in the course of two and a half hours. They rise to the challenge."

"Despite the twinkling title, there is nothing fey about this drama. Bartlett invites the audience to dismantle the traditional idea of marriage."

"I have rarely seen actors change from within so subtly and definitively."

"The action is clear and witty. James Macdonald – Caryl Churchill’s director of choice – excels in making an event from shard-like scenes."

"Mike Bartlett’s Nicola Walker and Steven Mangan-starring polyamory comedy is amusing but tame"

"It’s tartly amusing, but also cliche bound. While I’d say Bartlett’s eye for the foibles of middle-aged marriage is second to none, Kate feels mostly unbelievable, a hyper-confident 28-year-old with a total certainty about pretty much everything, who acts as a conveniently knowledgeable guide to Nick and Polly in these brave new worlds."

"Not wishing to give too much away, but by the second half, things have changed, and the idea of a throuple as a relationship model is given deeper consideration. Which is interesting. But also tricky."

"Bartlett wanted to write a comedy about polyamory and this is what a Mike Bartlett comedy about polyamory was always liable to look like – quizzically raising an eyebrow, displaying his open minded credentials and giving us a lot of great zingers, but not earnestly calling for sexual revolution."

"... the actors are great fun. Walker’s blend of sardonic irreverence and curmudgeonly vivacity is a formula that’s very much her own."

"There are many sides to Mike Bartlett: this is his first play to go straight into the West End, and was doubtless written with that in mind. Unicorn is him playing with the idea of the commercial comedy. It’s pretty MOR! But there’s enough of a twinkle in its eye that it never feels entirely conventional."

"This throuple play is an elusive creature"

"Mike Bartlett is incapable of writing a boring story."

"Stephen Mangan, Nicola Walker and Erin Doherty are a dream cast, actors who combine personal charisma with the ability to vanish into whatever part they are playing. All of which makes Unicorn an odd experience. It’s never dull and often devastating, but somehow it fails to land with the weight for which it is striving."

"... it’s Doherty who steals the show. Kate is both childlike and wise, wanting to remake the world but also a pragmatist, and Doherty lends her both conviction and a sense of desperation, a willingness to try that always puts her at risk of getting hurt."

"It is also, like the entire play, often very, very funny. Bartlett’s writing hits its targets with unerring precision, but in the second half, as the action darkens and develops in unexpected ways, his themes seem more diffuse."

"Stephen Mangan and Nicola Walker open up their marriage in polyamory play Unicorn"

"Erin Doherty stars as the titular ‘unicorn’ to a couple contemplating a ‘throuple’ at London’s Garrick Theatre"

"Walker and Mangan similarly have form as a married couple in trouble, having starred together in Abi Morgan’s TV drama The Split. Their rapport, with Walker as the emotional poet and Mangan the buttoned-up surgeon, is effortlessly natural, with Mangan’s hangdog affect and rigid bearing the perfect foil for Walker’s physical energy, expressive features and overflow of language."

"As to Kate, I can’t decide whether director James Macdonald sells her short with her deadpan, almost robotic delivery of her political opinions and sexual fantasies, or captures the undoubting, speak-it-like-it-is confidence of the next generation."

"Bartlett writes bitter well — bitterly funny even better. There are some great one-liners and a standout riff by Walker about the joys of “waiting” in the days before mobile phones. In a play where there’s a lot of explicit language and endless discussion about whether or not to jump into bed, there’s ironically (and perhaps thankfully) very little actual action."

"Trigger warning: Sexual candour but mushy."

"It’s a neat idea, but for all its colourful sexual candour (and it is very colourfully candid), Bartlett’s writing is also frustratingly tricksy, repetitive and evasive."

"James Macdonald’s production looks slick, behind a neon arch which forms the edge of a Sydney Opera House shell fitted with a succession of furnishings — sofa, bench, bed etc. Setting up a curious yarn, it’s quite cute and rather long-winded in its cosy anguish. But for all its fearless talk about sex and relationship fluidity, it heads towards a mushy, sentimental end that not all viewers will find intriguing."

"Crude banter and desire, but anguish is too polite"

"Stephen Mangan, Nicola Walker and Erin Doherty exchange a mix of crude banter and profundities on the implications of a threesome, without any eroticism"

"Have you been to an orgy where the introductory drinks and chit-chat take up most of the evening? Me neither. But that’s how I felt after sitting through Mike Bartlett’s garrulous study of sexual manners at the Garrick Theatre."

"The media build-up to opening night will have led a lot of people to expect a straightforward sex comedy, but it’s far from that. Yes, there’s lots of explicit talk about goings-on in the boudoir — the language is very blunt at times. But watching Stephen Mangan, Nicola Walker and Erin Doherty exchange a mix of crude banter and philosophical profundities on the implications of a threesome — or “throuple”, if you prefer — is a little like wandering around a giant erotic emporium on an industrial estate. After the twelfth box of vibrators starts buzzing away, a certain boredom sets in."

"Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan’s throuple comedy doesn’t catch fire"

"There are a few zingy lines but this threesome play co-starring Erin Doherty is lots of talk and no action – and peculiarly devoid of passion"

"What follows is just that: lots of talk and no action – in all senses of that word – and it is oddly atmosphere-less. Conversation spins and bounces from midlife doldrums to the terrible inexorability of ageing to mini critiques of capitalism, modern masculinity, coupledom and nuclear family values."

"There is a pivot in the second half but after all the angsting about alternative romantic configurations, and what they risk in entering into a threesome, there is no exploration of this when they move into the throuple."

"The performances lift it, somewhat. There is a natural ease between Walker and Mangan: she is volubly frustrated, he is hangdog.... Doherty brings spirit and comedy. But their relationships are peculiarly devoid of passion, too declarative of their desires. However intimate the conversation becomes, the chemistry in this throuple never quite ignites."

"Verbose and oddly passionless"

"Mike Bartlett’s new polyamorous drama starring Nicola Walker, Erin Doherty and Stephen Mangan is more cerebral than sexual"

"In a polished production by James Macdonald, it’s coolly intelligent and smartly acted by Erin Doherty, Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan. But for a drama that is concerned with desire, it’s verbose and oddly passionless, and its circuitous musings verge on frustrating."

"The conversations on which we eavesdrop are thoughtful and spikily funny, and Bartlett adroitly tweaks the balance of power as circumstances bend the relationships into unexpected shapes, as well as questioning which conventional impulses would creep into the most assiduously progressive set-up. Yet the stakes never feel high enough. It’s all so considered, so measured and cerebral, and although Kate in particular keeps talking about fun, that’s the very last thing anything represented here looks like."

"This Split reunion is about as hot as last night’s cocoa"

"The new play Unicorn starring Stephen Mangan and Nicola Walker in a throuple gets bogged down in tedious talking"

"Heavens, though, you’re grateful for flashes of Mangan’s light touch in this talk-heavy, action-light, unconvincing and overlong quasi-comedy."

"There are a few good lines in Unicorn too, albeit mostly throwaway ones that stem from character rather than the outmoded and very “written” musings on modern masculinity or the slow pace of life pre-iPhone. Mostly, though, Unicorn is desperately disappointing."

"For a while, as full-on throupledom looms, the jokes are better, the stakes are higher. And then, never mind Mangan’s knack for inhabiting Nick’s outward diffidence and inner drive at once, it gets portentous. In James Macdonald’s typically lucid production, Bartlett’s talkiness feels like he is circling around awkwardness rather than really dramatising it"