Review Roundup: THE BAND BACK TOGETHER at Arcola Theatre

Arcola Theatre is presenting the London premiere of Barney Norris' The Band Back Together. The play will run through 28 September.

The Band Back Together is a raucous and tender new story full of music. Celebrating growing up, coming home and making noise, The Band Back Together premieres in London after a rural community tour of England and Wales produced by Farnham Maltings. 

Joe, Ross and Ellie used to be in a band. They were pretty good too, making waves across a rugged patchwork of pubs and clubs. But time has thrown the three friends far from their younger selves. Back together for one night only to play a benefit gig in their home town of Salisbury, they find a community reeling from an infamous poisoning and a pandemic. And as they rehearse the old songs together, their stories and secrets must also be excavated.

See what the critics are saying...

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: You are not taken far enough into these characters’ stories, as compelling as they are. There is intelligent reflection around recent events, such as the pandemic and the Salisbury poisonings, but they are not thoroughly enough woven into the seams of the play. You want more of the songs, secrets, flare-ups and bittersweet nostalgia about the meaning of home, home towns, and the people we were in them.

Anya Ryan, Time Out: Norris also directs this production, which started its life at Surrey arts centre Farnham Maltings. And while it is wonderfully wistful throughout, it could be nudged further in almost all places. As the scenes play on, we fall for each of the band mates, as we would for our own childhood friends. But, we want to know more about their early years together and the others they spent apart. Once the music kicks in, the rush of forgotten years flood the stage. But, there could be more songs: the tunes speak the words the band cannot voice to each other. So much, frustratingly, feels left unsaid.