Power of Sail - Menier Chocolate Factory

Sounds terrible.

What has happened to this theatre? Have they all given up?

I had an email about this earlier today. The first thing to strike me was the advice bar running across the top of the booking page, which states the running time is 1 hr 45 mins without an interval. No latecomers, no readmissions and no refunds to latecomers.

Giles Terera now confirmed for this.

A lot of offers flooding in today for this through the end of the month.

How is the Equalities Act relevant ?

this play makes no sense at all. starts of looking like it might be some kind of debate about free speech (though set in a harvard like no harvard the usa has ever known) and then wanders off down some strange plot rabbit-holes, with a couple of unlikley reversals and pointless flash-backs, and ends with a joke about a pirate. why? good question. the acting is ok, given the characters act in ways that make no sense. the set needs a lot of pushing around. one star, for luck.

I found this pretty tedious and a waste of an excellent cast.
It’s all about the fall out from inviting a white supremacist to talk at a Harvard symposium. Frankly I couldn’t give a toss.

I was entertained enough throughout for it not to be tedious but I can very much see how someone else might have found it tedious.

The plot and parts of the script are tedious and I don't think the play realises that the audience are not laughing along with it but laughing at it in more than once place. A lot of the dialogue works pretty well and zips along but the twists through the time jump explanations just feel a bit dull and formulaic. Like this had to be written as a thriller to get made rather than an exploration of free speech on its own.

The set is pretty impressive for the space, distinct changes to bring in 5 locations and lots of things smartly just turning or reversing to show something else.

The cast are mostly highly enjoyable and Giles Terera has a couple of excellent scenes, his final scene in the bar was enough fun that I was happy enough with my ticket.

It is clearly not selling hugely well with a lot of £15 offers around. I ended up second row about a third of the way in and so I can't really complain.

At that price and with the cast, I'm going with three stars.

I'm going to go against the grain here - I enjoyed this. I thought the plot, if it stumbled a bit, tried to frame the story in such a way that it could engage in a debate of relevance to today's society - within the constraints that such a society imposes on debate. Yes, it does end up being more thriller than play of ideas but not completely. There is enough meat on these bones to justify the play's existence and staging.

Good cast all round but Giles Terera shines in everything he does. He must be well on course to getting towards the top echelon of active theatre actors. Go Giles go!!!

I’ve moved the posts discussing disability access to a new thread in General theatreboard.co.uk/thread/11824/disability-access?page=1&scrollTo=512763