A Very Very Very Dark Matter - new Martin McDonagh

Well what a surprise. I haven't laughed as much at play for ages. I really really really enjoyed this very very very dark play Brilliant

I thought Hare was bad till I had the misfortune to see this.   No interval so not possible to walk out.  The worst of the year by a long way.  "The worst of all time", said a friend.  

Wish they NTLive'd this. Would have definitely gone to see what all the fuss is about.

I agree with Billington, it was one of my most entertaining theatre experiences of 2018 - not perfect (I can see reasons for critique), but I also thought it was interesting in how it dealt with its issues in a non straight forward way. I thought it used comic absurdity - and some chilling moments - to make points about its themes without having to have the characters explicitly stand there and explain things to the audience in an obvious or soap box manner.

I saw this and it's flimsy as wet cardboard, but I actually laughed like a drain at most of it. Johnetta Eula'Mae Ackles is flippin excellent, especially when she gets to tote a machine gun and swear like a sailor.

When it becomes a time-travelling massacre history lesson, it's a bit weird. The comedy bad guys doing thick Yorkshire accents is straight out of a Fringe play. I don't actually know what McDonagh was on when he wrote this - some of it feels like a new writer trying to emulate a McDonagh play instead of it being the real thing.

I was there this afternoon too, £15 in the Stalls (having returned my £65 tickets for opening night. Boy, am I glad I didn't pay £65 for this!

I was uncomfortable for most of this. I felt that the allegory was hopelessly lost in the staging and text. Most of the laughs were from swearwords or casual stereotyping - it felt that whenever things were going slow, insult some Belgians or Germans or English children and get an easy laugh. Or just call someone a c***.

The cast do the best they can with the material but the overacting (obviously a directorial decision) just became tiresome. The Darwin/Dickens joke didn't improve with repetition and and the 'dinner party' scene tiresome (just why did Elizabeth Berrington sign up for this?)

Mixed reaction around me - some people were laughing like drains (a joke about not trusting someone with a beard was uproariously funny to a woman in front of me) - others didn't laugh at all and there certainly wasn't universal applause at the end, although those that liked it seemed to really enjoy it.

I'd love to have seen Hytner's reaction when he received the script.

i would say it is very much within his character to be condescending. 

McDonagh interviewed in the Observer today:

The writer-director is 52 now, and recently made the decision that he’s going to spend what creative time he has left – he reckons “around 25 years” – making films rather than plays. His reasoning? Films are quicker.

“I always used to think they took longer than plays, but with this one we were filming it a year ago, and now it’s out,” he says. “But if you’re lucky enough to have successful plays, which I have been, then they start off-West End, like at the Royal Court, then you go to the West End, then to off-Broadway, and then to on Broadway. And to get that right with each move, to cast it and take care of it, go to rehearsals, that’s five years of your life.”



He's talking absolute rubbish but good decision based on his last play.

I'm not sure how McDonagh can claim that theatres take longer than film when it's been five years since his last film.