Review Roundup: KERRY JACKSON Opens at the National Theatre

The National Theatre is presenting the world premiere of April De Angelis' biting new comedy, Kerry Jackson. has announced upcoming programming. Indhu Rubasingham directs Fay Ripley as Kerry, owner of a new restaurant in fashionable Walthamstow. Wearing her working-class roots as a badge of honour, Kerry navigates the local characters in a bid to make the tapas restaurant a success - without losing herself in the process. Madeline Appiah, Michael Fox, Michael Gould, Kitty Hawthorne and Gavin Spokes complete the company.

Set and costume design is by Richard Kent, lighting design by Oliver Fenwick, movement director is Lucy Hind and casting director is Juliet Horsley CDG.

See what the critics are saying...

---

Alexander Cohen, BroadwayWorld: With the dust from Arts Council Funding cuts still settling, Kerry Jackson's discussions about snobbery couldn't be more appropriate. With traditionally "elite" artforms being the hardest hit by budget cuts, questions about class and snootiness in post-Brexit Britian are ripe for examination. But without a concrete grip on its own perspective, Kerry Jackson swings and misses.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: Written by April De Angelis and directed by Indhu Rubasingham, this drama seems built on a thought experiment: what would happen if Kerry (Fay Ripley), an unlikely character to be placed at the heart of a comedy, were surrounded by her ideological opposites? But an interesting thought experiment does not always make for an interesting drama, as this production proves.

Matt Wolf: London Theatre: Kerry Jackson looks unlikely to do for Walthamstow, east London, what Shirley Valentine did for Liverpool, though both plays foreground women finding their way in middle age and looking to satisfy their libidos. But so offputting is the title character of April De Angelis's play, and repellent the extent to which those around Kerry are patronised or worse, that you come away baffled as to how this work got so far. There's not been a more puzzling new play this year, and very few that have been as unsatisfying.

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out: "nobody really learns anything, nobody has an inner life: maybe I'm overthinking a play that's purely meant to churn out the lols. 'Kerry Jackson' threatens to be an incisive drama about class stereotypes and gentrification; it settles for abject mediocrity instead."

To post a comment, you must register and login.