Bitter Wheat - Garrick Theatre

Kind of glad I stuck to the end but I generally think that was an evening wasted - a couple of mild laughs,mostly from Malkovich launching some mid range insults at people but imo it just wasn’t funny (it reminded me of Burn After Reading which I didn’t like either)

Saw Bitter Wheat a few nights ago and it was superb! Such an interesting show. Honestly so many moments where I felt so uncomfortable but all those moments where thought provoking. John Malkovich gives an unbelievable performance and the supporting cast are brilliant in equal measure. This show is definitely going to cause a stir in the West End but will ultimately start a well needed conversation.

For the first half, there's little dramatic tension, and by the time the drama appears in the second half, we don't much care for the characters. One consequence of the deflated drama is that the laughs don't land either, as so much of comedy is about releasing pent-up dramatic tension. Seeing Malkovich slither like a snake from scene to scene is fun, the principal reason to see this.

Some spoilers follow. . .

The best Mamet plays have males who sweat buckets, as existential angst crumbles their masculine identities to crumbs. That is the source of the drama AND the comedy.

By contrast, Mamet's surface treatment of Malkovich's character here, Barney Fein, fails to dig deep into any aspect of his identity, relying on sly in-jokes about him only being like he is because he's "fat," and cheap jokes about his weak bond with his mother. This surface treatment of Fein's character runs through Mamet's treatment of plot too, as he glosses over the repercussions of Fein's actions to instead have Fein deflect in monologues about what a wonderful "liberal" he is.

Evidently, Mamet intends to suggest the complicity of the posturing liberal establishment in creating and maintaining monsters like Fein, but the result is a play with no focus, a generally unfunny, undramatic, satirical portrait of a man without values bolstered by a society that merely pretends to have values.

This could have worked if there was dramatic energy behind the characters and scenarios presented, but there simply isn't. Instead, the real fun is in seeing Malkovich attempt to make dramatic mountains out of molehills and comic molehills out of mountains. It doesn't work as a show so much as an acting exercise.

If this was a better play, I'd say that the urbane Malkovich was miscast, as we really need more a more primitive, more desperate, more raging interiority for the manchild Fein character. Malkovich is so much better at civilising the abnormal (as he so chillingly and brilliantly did at the Barbican in "The Infernal Comedy" a few year ago, when he gave us an Austrian serial killer who was shockingly 95 percent likeable) than he is at uncivilising the banal, as here. I can imagine a furious actor like Ed Harris really getting his teeth into this part if it was actually worth playing.

But as it is, the piece is absent at it's core, so there's really no flint or flame that could light it's embers. Therefore, a chance to see Malkovich swan around playing with different smooth and slippery line readings becomes in itself the raison d'etre to go.

3 stars for Malkovich the actor making the equivalent of a theatrical phonebook watchable.

Where did you get the info about Sunday night performances? Their schedule at least online is:

Show Times
Monday – Saturday 7.30pm
Thursday & Saturday 2.30pm

Actually saw this last week and thought it was so interesting! Incredible stuff watching Malkovich perform on stage, honestly felt like an honour. And then the whole cast were wonderful to watch, would definitely like to see what reaction this has after press night!

LOL.

For what it's worth a friend of mine is working on this and says it's a complete ****show and is being constantly re-written during previews.

Full disclosure lest I be accused of having an agenda: I'm not going to see this. I don't want to see this. I've been biased against this since I first heard about it. I hate David Mamet.


Still press night tonight. We'll see what the critics make of it.

I'd love to hear some more opinions from people who only want to comment on Bitter Wheat!

This play seems to be single-handedly introducing theatre to an exciting new audience!

Wasn't there an incident of this shady nature on the old board which ended up in the press?

2* 'Malkovich and Mamet's monstrous misfire' - Billington: www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/jun/19/bitter-wheat-review-malkovich-and-mamets-monstrous-misfire

vs.

3* 'Malkovich brilliantly captures the bluster, sexual hubris and insecurities of Harvey Weinstein' - David Lister: www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/bitter-wheat-review-harvey-weinstein-theatre-david-mamet-metoo-john-malkovich-garrick-theatre-a8965521.html

It's 2 stars from Billers on my screen www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/jun/19/bitter-wheat-review-malkovich-and-mamets-monstrous-misfire

Also 2 Stars from The Times and The Telegraph

Funny how several of the 2 star reviews read as if they were one star reviews -- on which front, whatsonstage has just given their own one star notice:
www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/bitter-wheat-garrick-malkovich_49299.html

the Vanity Fair takedown is especially smart but they don't do the star ratings game.