Review Roundup: THE GIFT at Park Theatre

The Gift is being presented at Park Theatre! The Gift is a comedy about the extraordinary lengths one man is prepared to go to in order to unmask the anonymous sender of a knowingly disgusting present.

When Colin opens up an unexpected mystery package, a cake box from his favourite patisserie, and what’s inside turns out to be very much not a cake, it begins a series of events that take him deep into the murky waters of past transgression and modern-day vengeance. At first confused, bemused and more than a little appalled, Colin quickly descends into a spiral of questions, suspicions and accusations as he frantically tries to figure out who would send him such a thing.

The Gift is an irreverent comedy asking what can you do when someone seriously tries to upset your applecart? Should you see the funny side and let it go, or smoke out the perpetrator and make them pay? Written by Dave Florez (Fringe First winner for Somewhere Beneath), it’s directed by Adam Meggido (Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Magic Goes Wrong, co-creator of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical). See what the critics are saying...

Cindy Marcolina, BroadwayWorld: All in all, this is an overlong, lightweight comedy that would benefit from a trim and a rewrite. A tighter comic tempo might also save those jokes that linger too long (like when the two men have a rant over work email lingo while Lisa watches on, as bored as we are after a while). It’s a shame that even those instances that should be comically grand ultimately fall flat, but it’s also difficult to pinpoint the reason they do. It’s not the gift it’s supposed to be. It's innocuous and inoffensive, but also unexciting and very boring.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: The attempts to hit more serious notes are not always as successful as the humour. But the delivery of the box is the starting gun for an existential unravelling, and then a reset, for Colin. The production loses some of its potency in the last half hour, and the final act ties too neat a bow, as if keen to stave off Colin’s darkness. But it does not matter when the script is so entertaining and the actors hit all the comic beats. It is silly and strangely warming stuff.

Lucy Popescu, Islington Tribune: The characters feel one-dimensional and although the jokes come thick and fast, they don’t always land. Not the fault of the actors, whose timing is spot on. I prefer comedy with edge, but it’s hard not to enjoy Florez’s good-natured farce, the slick performances, Sarah Perks’ impressive set – combining kitchen and sitting room – and Adam Meggido’s assured direction.

chelseajina, A Young(ish) Perspective : The Gift is a decidedly fun watch and most certainly offers a great way to spend an evening absorbed in something that takes your mind away from the deluge of the human experience. In this sense, the play takes us back to the theatre of yore, intended to serve as a means of escape.

Rob Warren, Everything Theatre: I think I nearly smiled about half a dozen times in total. That’s not the fault of the cast, who try very hard indeed to find the comedy in Dave Florez’ script, and for many in the press night audience it clearly worked. Perhaps it played better in the Stalls than in the Circle where I was sat enjoying a bird’s eye view of the top of the actors’ heads, or perhaps it’s just a question of taste. After the show I met a lawyer who had found the show funny and relatable – I asked him if that was down to the script or the performances and he said it was a bit of both. Suffice it to say that if slightly ridiculous characters and the phrase “vegan activism” float your comedy boat, this could well be right up your alley.

Philip for Theatre & Tonic, Theatre & Tonic: t is not often I find a comedy laugh out loud funny but this is exactly what this was. It is the perfect remedy for the grey skies of winter. It is incredibly hard to cater to everyone’s taste but the whole room was positively beaming at the end of the show. This is one of those rare gems of a production where every piece falls into place to create magic.

Matt Wolf, London Theatre: Florez’s ambitions are laudable. Not many people would transmute the raw material for a gross-out comedy into a study in aberrant psychic behaviour that tilts the play towards the realm of Art and God of Carnage: dual studies by Yasmina Reza of civility under stress.