Noughts & Crosses reviews – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London

"Dominic Cooke’s dramatisation, originally seen at the RSC in 2007, is a real hard hitter"

"Tinuke Craig’s tense, grungily handsome production is a surprising choice for Regents Park"

"Commendably unwilling to pull punches as it examines how ordinary people can be drafted into terrorism... It’s seldom subtle but consistently effective, although visual differentiations between rich and poor could be more pronounced."

"... Cooke’s adaptation feels a little over-stuffed, especially in the second half. However, it also seems more politically charged and disturbing"

"As family-friendly shows go, this is no easy watch, but it’s thought-provoking and ambitious. The teenagers sitting near me were spellbound, and out of their seats, roaring with approval after the bleak conclusion."

"Malorie Blackman’s thought experiment confronts the audience anew"

"Callum and Sephy are a modern Romeo and Juliet, forced to grow up fast as they wade through the crushing racial and class structures that pin them in their opposing places"

"Bringing the story for young adults to life on stage, Tinuke Craig’s zippy, large-scale production confronts the audience anew. This modern Romeo and Juliet remains one of the most striking tales written for teenagers."

"... adapted by Dominic Cooke in 2007 for the RSC, the choppy script favours faithfulness to the book over inventiveness in exploring its new form."

"The cast bursts with sometimes overstated energy."

"Brown is buoyant as Sephy, desperate to do the right thing, her eyes slowly opening to her own privilege. Valentine is eager and angry as Callum"

"The fights, chases and continual narrative lurches means time whizzes by, racing towards the play’s harrowing end"

"Depressingly relevant"

"This striking adaptation... it’s a bold and thought-provoking piece that tackles emergent teenage sexuality, violence, alcoholism and suicide as well as racism"

"Tinuke Craig’s strident production is illuminated by strong performances, particularly from the exuberantly expressive Heartstopper star Corinna Brown"

"At a time when old-school prejudices are increasingly legitimised in mainstream political discourse, this interrogation of the absurdity of racism also feels timely and necessary. If the subject matter is unflinchingly adult, though, the tone of both Craig’s production and Dominic Cooke’s script can be patronising."

"... at just over two hours’ stage time, some characterisations are inevitably thin and some issues skated over."

"This is strong stuff, sometimes expressed in broad strokes, but depressingly relevant."

"Visually, it’s dazzling but Noughts & Crosses wilts under the weight of its YA source material"

"Stage adaptation struggles to capture the emotional resonance of Malorie Blackman’s searing novel"

"In her Regent’s Park debut, director Tinuke Craig makes smart use of the tools she’s afforded in such an iconic space."

"Visually, it’s striking. Joshua Pharo’s lighting conspires with Max Pappenheim’s immersive soundscape to conjure a chilling atmosphere of surveillance. DJ Walde’s electronic score lends the production a cinematic sweep. For all its flair, though, this production struggles to overcome the limitations of such an ambitious adaptation."

"The script feels burdened by its source material, cramming in plot points at a relentless pace, often in blunt and heavy-handed ways."

"Valentine is the clear standout, bringing a restrained sincerity to his portrayal of Callum. Brown, meanwhile, brings plenty of energy and conviction as Sephy, but at times the character feels flattened into a petulant teen."

"Ultimately, the production has a lot in common with its protagonists: full of heart, but a little out of its depth."

"A timely adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s novel"

"At London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, the story of a racist society with a twist is powerfully staged, though overloaded with narrative"

"... their ambitious, if uneven, staging"

"In Tinuke Craig’s production (using Dominic Cooke’s 2007 adaptation) there’s a constant chorus of adults — lurking, watching, shifting from foot to foot — whose forbidding presence expresses the weight of a divided, oppressive society."

"Tiny, revealing details speak volumes — a white schoolgirl given a sticking plaster too dark for her pale skin, for example."

"This is a terrifically timely show to be staging now. But the piece struggles, as so many page-to-stage transfers do, with compressing the weight of narrative. There’s a lot of story to get through, which means that scenes are brief and episodic, dialogue is burdened by exposition or blunt, emphatic statements and there is little room for nuance or character development."

"Like being battered over the head with a strobe light"

"This ham-fisted revival of Malorie Blackman’s racially-charged take on Romeo and Juliet is thuddingly black and white"

"Malorie Blackman’s racially-charged take on Romeo and Juliet, pulls no punches in depicting the devastating impact of racism... Yet, it comes a cropper in Tinuke Craig’s frenetic, over-emphatic revival of Dominic Cooke’s 2007 stage adaptation, which is more interested in making sure we understand the importance of its message than in making us care about the characters. It’s like being battered over the head with a strobe light."

"... Craig’s curiously context-free production gives precious little sense of how class and division actually operate. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is often ham-fisted"

"... although Corinna Brown gives Sephy a vivacious stage presence, she can’t find the weight required to give her relationship with Callum the emotional heft it needs. The more Craig goes for shock and awe, the more she leaves you exhausted and bored. Not a great combination."

"Star-crossed lovers shine amid the gloom"

"Tinuke Craig’s production of Malorie Blackman’s dystopian novel has sparky lead actors, but there’s an awful lot of shouting of pedestrian dialogue"

"... I’m not sure many adults will enjoy this heavy-handed version of Malorie Blackman’s dystopian novel"

"Dominic Cooke’s adaptation — first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company two decades ago — constantly strikes a moralising note, while Tinuke Craig’s lacklustre production rushes through scene after scene, leaving us to try to make sense of a collection of remorselessly one-dimensional characters."

"Corinna Brown and Noah Valentine at least bring youthful vitality to the roles of the star-crossed lovers Sephy and Callum, and you can have a certain amount of fun spotting the occasional parallels with Romeo and Juliet. But there’s an awful lot of shouting of pedestrian dialogue as the duo try to pursue their romantic dreams"

"Storytelling by numbers"

"Clunky adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s celebrated YA novel lacks power and nuance"

"Directed by Tinuke Craig and unevenly acted by an energetic but haphazard ensemble, it lacks both theatrical coherence and political punch, leaving the narrative’s rather simplistic premise exposed."

"Craig’s production and Ingrid Mackinnon’s criss-crossing or slightly naff slo-mo movement make surprisingly limited use of Colin Richmond’s multilevel set of concrete and steel. And a clunky didacticism hangs over the whole endeavour"

"Brown’s Sephy and Valentine’s Callum bring a certain amount of wide-eyed innocence and hormonal urgency to their roles, but we get only the vaguest sense of their personalities."

"... Cooke’s adaptation is blunt-edged and the pacing of Craig’s staging is painfully sluggish"

"Noughts & Crosses is a sadly bovine adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s dystopian young adults’ novel"

"Brown is a vivacious young Sephy: bolshy yet bashful. And Valentine’s loyal young Callum is streetwise, yet sensitive. But Tinuke Craig’s production includes 16 other 2D stiffs"

"... I was all too glad to escape into the balmy night, and Regent’s Park."