‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore

Reviews

UK

“Darkly funny, superbly visceral and poignant… electrifying”

Independent on Sunday

“One of the finest and most bitterly outrageous Jacobean productions you could hope to see… totally compelling.”

WhatsOnStage

“Sexy, stylish, a thrill to sit through.”

The Times

“Thrillingly intense and urgent.”

Evening Standard

“Diabolically witty and sexed up.”

The Independent

“Fleet-of-foot and fluid.”

The Telegraph

“Declan Donnellan’s thrilling Cheek by Jowl revival…a modern, gothic spin.”

Financial Times

“Donnellan and Ormerod’s sexy and unnerving new production…gruesomely, wildly alive.”

Time Out, Critic’s Choice

France

“Up-to-the-minute design, a blazing, daring vision – a masterful evening. 
Tragic, violent, scandalous, the play is a masterpiece. An absolute must-see. 
a stunning ensemble guided by Declan Donnellan’s masterful hand. 
the company grabs hold of the play with a vivid intensity.”

Le Figaro

“John Ford’s play, transposed from the Renaissance to the 3rd millennium by the British director Declan Donnellan, is a frenetic ballet-opera where damned lovers flirt with the apocalypse. The company, on stage throughout – celebrating, fighting or hiding in the shade like an army of demons – are impressive in their energy and virtuosity. Not every day does one get (and feel) such an Elizabethan hit.”

Les Echos

“It is masterfully organised in modern dress, in an ingenious design by Nick Ormerod…acted with an enviable, powerfully passionate edge.”

L’Humanité

Spain

“As on previous occasions, the cast of Cheek by Jowl are capable of rigorously respecting the text, adapting it to modern dress and situations, thereby making more poignant the validity and humanity of the emotions it narrates. In this case it plays with the myriad of unbridled passions whereby the splendid actors move, amuse and sadden the audience, crossing the stage with boundless energy, in control of every last detail, in a subtle and precise theatrical choreography, with an impressive physical presence, manipulating difficult texts with immense confidence and displaying musical skills and even circus tricks. Overwhelming.”

El Mundo

“The performance by Cheek by Jowl, presented last week at the Matadero after a very successful international tour, is, I believe, one of the best of its career.”

Babélia (El País supplement)

Australia

“Britain’s Cheek by Jowl condense John Ford’s still-potent Jacobean play into two hours of sensual, fluid and sometimes blackly comic drama…Declan Donnellan’s production blends the codified gestures of Elizabethan theatre with choreographed movement sequences (developed by Jane Gibson), painterly tableaux and 21st-century Tarantino-toned viciousness.”

Sydney Morning Herald