The Misanthrope Reviews: Oh delivers, but critics find the play has more bark than bite

“The Canadian actress commands attention, effortlessly.”

“Whether Martin Crimp’s witty but underpowered new version affords the best showcase for Oh’s abilities is another matter.”

“this lavish production (another mild disappointment from NT boss Indhu Rubasingham after her Bacchae) isn’t bold enough to get us talking.”

“The gender-flip yields a less combustible tone than the material demands.”

“Not only does the topicality feel safe and the jeopardy minimal, but Alice herself – the coolest, most collected person in the room – feels curiously incidental.”

“The supporting performances are accomplished, with especially enjoyable work from Paul Chahidi as Alice’s gay playwright pal, and Rina Fatania as her insufferable reputation manager. But they crowd out the star attraction.”

“This reworking of the 17th-century classic simpers in its satire and woos in its human drama.”

“With sprawling ideas and OTT satire, it is stuffed full of the debates of our time around female empowerment, patriarchy, digital rage, misinformation, and the hollow language of “acceptance” with plenty of pops at theatre and bad writing. Not all of these issues seem to belong to a single play; they are bitten off but barely chewed.”

“The satirical elements are hard to anchor. Who is being satirised and why? The production seems to send up everyone from gen Zers who speak about their authentic selves to women who rail against misogyny, the latter mainly through Alice.”

“In the best dramatic moments it contains some riveting acting from Oh, who brings heart, fire, vulnerability and comic timing.”

“The dialogue in that first scene positively crackles, and the overlaying of modern concerns – the lack of debate encouraged by social media, the instant categorising of opinion – seems neatly made. But as the play progresses, the target of the satire becomes more blurred.”

“[Oh] is affecting at moments and hilarious at others, but sometimes her characterisation doesn’t cut through.”

“She isn’t helped by Crimp’s adaptation that (unlike his astonishing Cyrano de Bergerac in the West End six years ago) is blurred at times in its wit and intent.”

“Of the characters surrounding her, only Chahidi cuts through, his command of tone, the poetry of the lines and emotion exemplary. Abigail Cruttenden is also impressive as Stefan’s long-suffering agent, but her appearance is only fleeting.”

“Indhu Rubasingham’s direction keeps the action fast on Robert Jones’s handsome designs, which set the story in various rooms of a boutique hotel full of baroque extravagance in its rich cushions and red-painted walls.”

“Sandra Oh’s London stage debut could have been, should have been, so much better.”

“Crimp has moved the action from 1666, the time of Louis XIV, to the modern day, the time of cancel culture and intimacy coordinators. As a plot device, it opens up a cornucopia of topics for Alice to mock and rail against – but it all proves too delicious to pass up for Crimp, who, like a kid in a candy store, can’t decide and so takes one of everything.”

“Crimp aims his satire like a fine spritz rather than the firehose jet of Molière’s original.”

“Oh is decent enough at the protesting and proclaiming and denouncing and ranting that her role requires, but the actor is best in the play’s quieter moments, her fangs retracted and her soft underbelly exposed.”

“In this new version of Molière’s 17th century classic, playwright Martin Crimp amusingly updates its biting comedy of courtly manners, skewering the hypocrisy and hollowness of our performative, optics-obsessed culture.”

“Although the dialogue is snappy, the satire feels unfocused.”

“Indhu Rubasingham’s judicious direction makes the piece feel lively and natural, despite all the intricate verbal artifice, with sparky sparring matches breaking out and conversations frequently descending into overlapping arguments.”

“Heading the cast, prolific TV and film actor Sandra Oh makes a brilliantly bitter Alice.”

“Mison hovers between vulnerability and viciousness, his glib charm an unconvincing mask for his self-destructive addictions.”

“Paul Chahidi is strong as Alice’s best friend, playwright John, whose professed admiration for the author reveals his insecurities about the shallowness of his own work.”

“Tim Lutkin’s understated lighting gradually shades down from brightness to a deep darkness, charting the central character’s descent from the glittering heights of literary stardom into a lightless pit of misanthropic despair.”

“Sandra Oh struggles, but so would anyone in the fatally cluttered romp that is Martin Crimp’s revision of a revision of the Molière play”

“Part of the problem with this production, directed at a frenetic tempo by the National’s new boss Indhu Rubasingham (who tackled Crimp’s version of the play in Chichester a couple of decades ago), is that Oh’s delivery lacks nuance.”

“om Mison makes the best of things as her younger lover, Stefan, a shallow, self-absorbed actor. Paul Chahidi outshines everyone as Alice’s friend, John, a gay playwright who is happy to be all things to all men.”

“By the time the piece stumbles towards its meta conclusion at a baroque-themed costume party, we’ve long ceased to care about the outcome.”

“The wardrobe department comes up trumps, though.”