The Handmaid's Tale Reviews

Joseph Butler from London, England

NO STARS

It is not possible to give no stars on this site, but that would be my choice. This was the most dreary, dismal and depressing evening I ever spent in the theatre. The music is a tissue of banal modernist cliches, the story is repulsive, the characters ciphers, the singing had a lot of hideous high pitched screeching and squawking. When there is real horror going on in the world today in Gaza, to present a near pornographic display of simulated sex'n'violence in sanitised form in a theatre, which we know is fake and make-believe, is not just distasteful, it is downright obscene. Two other points: when you have to display English words as surtitles because they cannot be heard, this is a sure sign that the composer musical setting is afailure. Also, to have to employ an "intimacy co-ordinator" (which must be the most ludicrous and fatuous job ever devised) to protect the poor dears on stage from being upset by what they are being made to do can only suggest the question: what is the point of doing it at all? What indeed is the point of this revolting ghastly repulsive show?

Lou from London, England

AWFUL

Absolutely dreadful we were so bored we left at the interval along with some others! No scenery, underwhelming orchestra and devoid of drama It was actually quite funny because it was so bad. Put me off opera forever. Don't waste your time or money on this performance if you're opera curious.

Louise from London, England

WHAT ON EARTH DID I JUST WATCH?

Tedious. Difficult. Painful. As a musical, opera and all round theatre-lover with a 'Give it a chance no matter what' attitide, this was the stage equivalent of water torture. Positives? The set was done in a stripped-back rather haunting, beautiful way. Other than that I could find no redeeming features. I developed a headache and contemplated putting earplugs in, but remained bemused enough to make it to the interval by watching other audience members scroll through their phones, read their Kindles, fall deeply asleep, pop their headphones in, watch movies and er... leave. It was the single time in my fairly extensive history of theatre that an audience member's mobile phone went off near us and for once, all I could think was 'Yes! Keep it going! At last, something resembling a decent piece of music'. Spend the evening scraping your fingers down a blackboard. You'll have a better, cheaper time.

Liz phillips from London, England

DREADFUL

Worst opera I have ever seen, left at the interval along with four others in our party

Elle Sutton from London, England

DREADFUL

Don’t waste your money- never been the theatre where so many left either during or in the intermission.

Tina Cooper from London, England

ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE

We managed to sit through the first half, a lot of people left before then. We couldnt bring ourselves to sit through the second half. The acting wasnt bad, the singing was awful. The whole thing really didnt work. I am glad i only paid £12 for my seat.

Harry Medden from London, England

SHOCKINGLY BAD

I’ve never left a performance in an interval before but my wife and I couldn’t stand the idea of sitting through the second half. Yes, the story line is challenging but there was nothing in this opera to engage with. The singing was mono-tonal and the music was discordant. It was like everything was done in slow motion. The best bit was the opening 2 mins where the story line was introduced in spoken English.

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