Critical Reviews
In spite of RolePlay being the afterthought of the trilogy, it earned the most praise of the three plays, throughout the original Scarborough run, the tour, and the later West End production. Whilst the critics were unanimous in praise of the play, opinions varied as to how they saw the play. Some saw it a revival of 'Classic Ayckbourn', and Paul Taylor of The Independent wrote that it "returns to vintage Ayckbourn territory: the dinner party from hell." Others, however, saw the play as having more depth Michael Billington of The Guardian wrote about the trilogy as a whole: "It shows Ayckbourn moving beyond his familiar terrain of suburban angst to deal with metropolitan madness and moral confusion.". Jeremy Kingston commended the play for the collision of three different worlds, and scenes where six of the characters remain immobile whilst the seventh speaks.
There were a number of niggling criticisms, including questioning why Julie-Ann did not call the police whilst she had the chance, but none of them bore any weight on the overall verdict of the plays.
Alison Pargeter won Best Newcomer in the Critics' Circle Awards for her role as Paige, along with her roles as Kelly in GamePlan and Rosie in FlatSpin.
Read more about this topic: Role Play (play)
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reviews:
“It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“I have been reporting club meetings for four years and I am tired of hearing reviews of the books I was brought up on. I am tired of amateur performances at occasions announced to be for purposes either of enjoyment or improvement. I am tired of suffering under the pretense of acquiring culture. I am tired of hearing the word “culture” used so wantonly. I am tired of essays that let no guilty author escape quotation.”
—Josephine Woodward, U.S. author. As quoted in Everyone Was Brave, ch. 3, by William L. O’Neill (1969)