The Lady from the Sea

Time Out“A lively but rather rudderless affair...” Sadly Unwin's contemporary translation, full of repetitions and expositions, pours oil on Ibsen's dancing waters. The audience laugh, but often in sincerely intended moments, puncturing any emotional flow...

The Arts Desk“We’ve lived on crumbling emotional cliffs for two hours...” His new English version is naturalistic and clear, and the audience laughs heartily quite a lot. But he also throws out the potential magic thereby...

The Observer“A particularly strong cast...” If Richardson is oppressed by the weight of expectations, she does a good job of concealing it. In this tight little society, her Ellida bristles like an animal in a cage...

Whatsonstage.com“Clear, light and poetic...” Richardson is a gorgeous, appealing and at times infuriating Ellida, as changeable as the sea (predictably); by turns glowing, arms outflung and vibrant, or nervy, hands fussing with her hair...

this is london“Efficient rather than compelling...” Ibsen delights in the sea's dramatic possibilities: although at first Ellida thinks of the sea as representing freedom, she learns this freedom must be matched by responsibility. Richardson plausibly articulates the battle between the two...

The Stage“The new, modern-sounding version of the play...” The problem with this production, with its clunky scene changes on the wooden deck of a stage in front of a darkening cyclorama sky, is that both her character and the play’s changing registers are hardly registered at all...

The Independent“Dramatic and engaging...” Unwin brilliantly unpicks the tangle of 19th-century family relationships. The crux is dependency and responsibility versus freedom...

The Telegraph“Shortage of emotional depth...” It is a perfectly competent performance, but this is a role that demands the remarkable, and I never fully experienced the yearning confusion and fascinating enigma of the character. Richardson merely seems like a neurotic suburban housewife wife...

Guardian“Richardson's performance that motors the production...” But, while no opportunity to see this extraordinary play should be missed, I feel Unwin's production needs to push its heroine closer to the edge of madness in order to heighten her triumphant redemption...