Review Roundup: THE GLORIOUS FRENCH REVOLUTION at New Diorama Theatre

The Glorious French Revolution (or: why sometimes it takes a guillotine to get anything done) by YESYESNONO is now playing at New Diorama Theatre. Performances run through 14 December 2024. 

Award-winning YESYESNONO are making their biggest show yet - the story of the French Revolution. It’s a show about angry, hungry citizens demanding a better world (It’s not Les Mis). It’s a show about rage and violence and taking to the streets. It’s a show with some music and a bit of dance (It’s really not Les Mis though). It’s about what it would feel like to guillotine a king… or maybe like… a billionaire? Just thinking about it, obviously not actually DOING it… just imagining… just a thought experiment… not serious, obviously we’re not serious but maybe… maybe… maybe..?

Drawing on a fiery tradition of Brechtian political theatre, five actors blast us through one of the most vital, controversial moments in European history in a completely one-sided, biased, irreverent account of what it feels like to crave a guillotine today. See what the critics are saying...

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Franco Milazzo, BroadwayWorld: The relentless pacing sags somewhere in the middle even with the occasional ominous deceleration to recount horrific details, for example when an aristo is dragged off his horse and slowly dismembered by the crowd. Han Sayles’ lighting and the musical compositions of Tom Foskett-Barnes set the tone as we barrel along on a tale which has all the intrigue and fatuous egos of Succession. Even with the flurry of names, dates and statistics thrown at us, this is an enthralling rollercoaster of a work.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: The violence of revolutionary regime change is underlined, leaving the wavering question of whether it is too high a price to pay. But in the last scene, when a guillotine is assembled on stage during the dinner party, you wonder what this is saying? That we are heading into revolutionary violence in the face of current world inequities? It is an enormous, unexplained leap. It is hard to decipher any coherent meaning from the sequence of events. Either it is convoluted, or else too arcane to grasp.

Clive Davis, The Times: The last time I saw one of Ward’s works, it was when he performed his cod-philosophical monologue we were promised honey! at the Edinburgh Fringe. The writing here is even more irksome. I was in Marseilles last weekend, marvelling at the scenery, as well as the bone-headed ultra-leftist posters pasted on almost every wall in the boho neighbourhoods. This piece is the dramatic equivalent of all those empty slogans.

Time Out, Andrzej Lukowski: Ward’s bet seems to be that he’s found a thrilling enough theatrical language to elevate his stage lecture into something special. And there are definitely moments where it comes close. But ultimately there is no real insight here, and no attempt to explain why this show exists or what the Revolution meant to its makers. Stylish hipster theatre, about the coolest of the big Western revolutions, but it’s about as profound as a Che Guevara t-shirt.

Andrei-Alexandru Mihail, Everything Theatre: What begins as crude humour evolves into a nuanced examination of how revolutions consume their children. Under all the experimental flourishes lies a devastatingly simple message about the cyclical nature of violence, delivered with all the subtlety – or lack thereof – it deserves. Those willing to weather the intentionally rough opening will be rewarded with a production that grows into something truly remarkable and unnervingly relevant. YESYESNONO have created a piece that starts by making you laugh at the past and ends by making you deeply uncomfortable about the present, and uncertain about the future.

Izzy Tierney, All That Dazzles: In a play that does not shy away from the brutality of the French Revolution and the centuries of feudalism responsible for it, a deeper exploration of how the French Revolution is still relevant is needed for the show to have the impact it more than deserves. Despite this, The Glorious French Revolution in its current form is still a captivating experience, and whether you love or hate the idea of a ludicrous history lesson, it's one I highly recommend going to see.

Jason Showdie, A Young(ish) Perspective: Perhaps one of the most satisfying things about this play is that it resists the urge to make one simple point at the end. Instead, it’s a piece that leaves the audience wanting to have a discussion; in fact, it almost demands we have one. Is the show saying we should, as the youth might say, eat the rich? Not exactly. Is it saying we should never revolt and be satisfied with the current state of affairs? Definitely not. Does it comment on what might happen if you oppress the poor for too long, if thousands or millions die in poverty while a minority continue to fatten, if you cultivate a hunger on the streets? Yes.

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