Here are some of the things reviewers have said about our production of Steven Lally’s Oh Well Never Mind Bye – click here to visit the show’s main page.
Time Out
**** Critics’ Choice
June 25 – July 1 2009
“Steven Lally’s new play rapidly builds into a relentless, meticulous critique of the British media. At the same time, it’s got proper characters and a cracking storyline…Tom Mansfield’s excellently acted production astutely uses the Union’s intimate theatre-in-the-round – the very closeness of the action and proximity of fellow spectators makes the piece all the more urgent and shared…an epitaph for British journalism. This is essential viewing for anyone who cares about the future of our newspapers” Andrew Haydon [read in full]
Click here to go back to the Oh Well Never Mind Bye page.
The Guardian
***
22 June 2009
“This lively, pugnacious play…raises vital issues about a world in which journalists rely on official handouts rather than investigative reporting…Lally’s arguments hit home: not least the desk-bound nature of modern journalism, the supine dependence on press releases and the subordination of truth to job security…Tom Mansfield’s production is ebulliently acted by Susanna Fiore as the defiant Charlotte, Benjamin Peters as the blackmailing news editor, and Matthew Duggan and Charlotte Flintham as the hacks caught in the middle. It’s a play guaranteed to make journalists twitch uncomfortably in their seats.” Michael Billington [read in full]
Click here to go back to the Oh Well Never Mind Bye page.
The Sauce
****
“Oh Well Never Mind Bye is a searing indictment of the current state of British journalism, examining the trade when it is stretched to its limit and finding it unable to deal with complexity, controversy or the basic reporting of facts. The realism of the play is brilliantly brought out by a confident cast, each of whom have doppelgangers in the newsrooms of the Telegraph, Mail and Mirror…the events, emphasis, characters and overarching analysis of the play are too painfully based on the truth.” Brendan Montague [read in full]
Click here to go back to the Oh Well Never Mind Bye page.
The Guardian Arts Blog
23 June 2005
(star ratings do not apply)
“To some reporters from some newsrooms, the scenes and the characters will trigger a sense of deja vu: in this fictional newsroom, initiative and a search for the truth is secondary to toeing the line, with the news editor using a mix of passive-aggressive bullying and humiliation to neutralise dissent…Those who believe news journalism has to have a future for our democracy to function should be pleased people still care enough to write and stage such a play…it’s a production deserving of a wider audience – something that applies to proper news journalism too.” Vikram Dodd, Crime Correspondent for The Guardian who has covered the de Menezes case since 2005. [Read in full]
Click here to go back to the Oh Well Never Mind Bye page.
Oneworld UK
29 June 2009
“Steven Lally…provides urgency and force through his sharp, spare dialogue. Every journalist should see this play, and most will squirm with embarrassment. Anyone interested in the media should also spend a couple of hours underneath the arches. It’s a play with a point, but it’s also funny and entertaining.” Daniel Nelson [read in full]
Click here to go back to the Oh Well Never Mind Bye page.
The Electronic Intifada
“A genuinely brave piece of writing…A play dealing with these weighty topics could easily be tedious, didactic and hectoring. But Lally’s great achievement in Oh Well Never Mind Bye is to write something which is also very funny.” Sarah Irving [read in full]
