The Comeuppance - Almeida

IIRC, I didn't book this because the themes seemed US-orientated and treading similar cultural ground to where we've been many times before. I think we've likely grasped the preoccupations of that society.

Interested to know if it has something fresher to say. Or maybe look at European/world theatre.

As always if a play originated abroad I check reviews of previous productions to decide whether to book. So basing the decision not only on the content but the execution. Only ever a cheap ticket though, so no great risk & it pays off more often than not.

Found this diverting but pointless

Some funny lines

But not a patch on Gloria or Octoroon or Appropriate

Feels undercooked and tbh bit naff in the messaging post Covid

People are predictable

The play told me nothing new whatsoever

Am due to see this next Saturday & even if it doesn't sound great, I'd rather be diverted than baffled & bored, as I was by Octoroon (which I left as soon as I felt I could decently escape from the uhelpfully small & close auditorium at the Orange Tree). I did also see Appropriate & though I can't now recall a thing about it, at least it hasn't left an indelibly dire impression like Octoroon. So relatively speaking & strange as it sounds given the above comments, this is promising.

I saw this on Saturday and loved it it, too.  I'm close to the characters generationally speaking, but I grew up in Italy.  This didn't make relating to their experiences difficult at all, even though some of their life stories are remarkably different from my own, because the play - whilst being set in the US and referring to certain events that certainly speak perhaps louder to someone who grew up in the US and experienced certain events there - is so much more generally about the human condition and what it means to deal with disappointment, grief, wrong choices, etc. 

It's true you hear them talk about themselves and their younger selves and their memories a lot, but I found that's what allowed me to get to know them well enough to care about them - especially the two that are introduced first because we get to spend longer with them than with anyone else.  I'd probably see it another time if given the chance.  



  

Saw the matinee and agree with parsley1 that this isn't as thrilling or as original as "Appropriate" or "An Octaroon" or "Gloria."

This is a passable reunion play. Its also a memento mori, like one of those classical portraits where the painter would put a skull in it to remind everyone that everyone in the painting, and everyone viewing the painting, is going to die (of which the most famous painting I can think of is "The Ambassadors" at the National Gallery by Hans Holbein).

Some spoilers follow. . .

The reason I compare this to a painting is that its static like a painting, more a portrait of characters at a fixed time in their lives than a drama about them.

And the reason I compare it to a memento mori painting is that Death is a character in the play.

One drawback of the play is that the most likeable characters get the least lines and the least likeable characters get the most lines.

As the most likeable character (she was just as great as the most unlikeable character in "Unreachable" at the Royal Court), Tamara Lawrance is great and there is far too little of her.

As far as the portraits of the other characters go, I loved Ferdinand Kingsley as the most dramatic character (there really isn't any drama at all except when he's on stage), I liked Yolanda Kettle as the most convincingly chaotic character and I liked Katie Leung as the funniest character.

As the whining lead character, Emilio, the one with the scores to settle, I admired how much charisma Anthony Welsh injected into him to make him tolerable, and Welsh's turn as Death (they all take a turn) was the most effective one.

The play has so little drama though that ultimately it's a lesser entry among reunion plays (of which Jacobs-Jenkins' own "Appropriate" is one of the better ones).

3 stars from me.

Ha ha, there is mention of a "psychopomp" in the opening speech, and I didn't know what it meant.

The character did explain it but then he made the mistake of saying that if we didn't understand what he was saying, just think of him as "Death."

I assume a psychopomp is like Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin in "Dead Like Me" on the Telly, where they helped dying people make a painless exit, or is that TV show long forgotten now and no longer a reference anyone remembers lol!

Just saw this. Very average play, nothing that hasn't been done before a hundred times, some funny lines and little else. The Death character was tiresome after the first two appearances. The last monologue was preachy and boring.

The acting was mostly good. I was not impressed with Anthony Welsh: he has an emotional moment towards the end that was very forced and cringey. Either he had a bad day or is not a very good actor.

Quite a few empty seats. At least I was lucky that having bought a cheap restricted view ticket,I ended up moving to a good one.

I find it ironic the play waxes lyrical on Covid

And people’s motivations and actions

And how they have slipped back into less good versions of themselves

When the work itself is so mediocre and unoriginal and not good

Perhaps this was intentional

A satire

Just a poorly executed one

I did not think it was a satire. But then I remembered a quote by Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn (I think): a satire is a comedy without the laughs. It could apply.

I am not surprised to see this is having a helping hand for tickets

Although rare as of late for The Almeida