Inspired by a dream and shaped by reflections on life, loss and Taoist philosophy, the show sees McDermott sharing personal stories alongside ten new pieces of music by Glass, brought to life by a company of musicians and puppeteers. Here's what critics had to say following its West End premiere!

BOOK TICKETS

Tao of Glass Critic Reviews

"Glass's music, meanwhile, is the river running through the show frenetic, churning over a jagged bed of percussion in Newspaper, wistful and yearning in twining violin and clarinet in Maurice. The 89-year-old composer might not appear as he did in Manchester, but his ghost-presence in Coma (no spoilers) is at once the simplest and most electrifying stage-magic. Tao of Glass starts by asking us where music comes from, but ends up showing where it can take us to."
- The Guardian

"Somehow McDermott pulls all his many strands together: broken dreams, broken pots, those famous broken chords of Glass's music. Far from naff or dull, this is in fact a cheeky show, and a fun show, and a deeply profound show. It is a love letter to theatre, partly because of its subject, but mostly because there isn't a single moment of it that could exist in any other form than theatre."
- TimeOut

"Tao of Glass is many things; delightfully funny, visually impressive, challengingly erudite and exquisitely beautiful. These magically offer paths into alternative understandings of disorderly humanness, bonding an audience of individuals in a shared space firmly together using music and experience, while capturing the capability of theatre to articulate knowledge beyond the spoken. You may well leave a different person."
- Everything Theatre

"This may all sound academic and profound; however, McDermott is never distant or condescending as he explains various theories and Chinese Wisdom. He's so kind and engaging that we want to join him on the revolving floor as clarinettist Jack McNeill and Kasia Ziminska serenade him as he sinks, like the hero of In The Night Kitchen, into a deeper state of consciousness. When the spell is broken, we emerge refreshed and hopeful while a tug of the inevitable whispers in the undertow of sound waves."
- The Reviews Hub

"In fact, a show did emerge, first seen in this country at the 2019 Manchester International Festival. And it has new music composed and played live by an invisible Philip Glass. Go see this extraordinary production to find out for yourself how that leger de main works."
- The Arts Desk

"Within three concentric circles that rise and fall, a narrative of sorts eventually unfolds and notions come together. McDermott takes fractured storylines and fractured thoughts and, like kintsugi, creates a whole (using not gold paint as the Japanese do) but an endearing sense of hope for the future. In a roundabout looping way, he comes to his conclusion: art can come from the strangest of places but what matters most is not its origins but where it takes us."
- BroadwayWorld