Therese Raquin Review 2006

Genre: Drama
Opened 13 Nov 2006
Written: by Emile Zola, adapted by Nicholas Wright
Directed: Marianne Elliott
Produced: National Theatre
Cast: Ben Daniels (Laurent), Charlotte Emmerson (Therese)
Synopsis: Stifled by an oppressive mother-in-law and a sickly husband, Therese Raquin falls passionately for another man. Their feverish affair drives the lovers to an act of terrible desperation, which catapults them headlong into a world more claustrophobic than the one they sought to destroy.

What the critics had to say.....
NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "Feverish, flamboyant staging." ALASTAIR MACAULAY for THE FINANCIAL TIMES says, "It's all dully interesting and admirably flat...One watches this Therese Raquin as if from an immense distance, and with total detachment." RHODA KOENIG for THE INDEPENDENT says, "The impression is of a story so adapted to contemporary, local taste that its odd, disturbing flavour has been adapted out of it. This Therese Raquin is easy to swallow, but an hour later you're hungry for a real play. MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "The play, in short, is nothing like as powerful as the novel." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "I suspect that Zola's original novel will haunt my memory far more potently than this disappointingly pallid and laborious stage version." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "A play that, far from being the scientific case-study Zola wanted, is as grimly moral a warning against extramarital hanky-panky as any ever written."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Guardian
The Independent
The Financial Times
Daily Telegraph
The Times