*This house. It’s called ‘Sea View’. It’s just I’ve looked out of every window, and you can’t. You can’t see the sea.*
Blackpool, 1976. The driest summer in 200 years. The beaches are packed. The hotels are heaving. In the sweltering backstreets, far from the choc ices and donkey rides, the Webb Sisters are returning to their mother's run-down guest house, as she lies dying upstairs.
Following their multi award-winning triumph *The Ferryman*, Jez Butterworth, writer of *Jerusalem*, resumes his partnership with Sam Mendes, director of *The Lehman Trilogy*, to bring you The Hills of California.
__*The Hills of California* plays at Harold Pinter Theatre from 27 January 2024 for a strictly limited season.__
A rivetingly assertive central performance from Laura Donnelly sets the tone for a strong ensemble cast and the play more than earns its three-hour running time, at least until the garbled ending. Mendes told me last year Butterworth originally handed him “half a play”. It’s now nine-tenths of a superb one.
It’s a long play at approximately three hours, with only a pause between Acts 2 and 3. Yet the time flies as it’s so engrossing, not just because of the glorious dialogue but also some of the best performances across a whole West End cast we’ve seen in recent years. The standout by a mile is Laura Donnelly who embodies the daughters’ strict mother in the 1950s flashbacks, before just as convincingly playing a very different character later on.
2024 | West End |
West End |
2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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