Behind the Beautiful Forevers - reviews of 'epic' stage show
David Hare turns bestselling book about Mumbai slums into a kaleidoscopic spectacle
What you need to know
David Hare's stage adaptation of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, has opened at the National Theatre, London. Rufus Norris directs Hare's new play, based on Katherine Boo's bestselling 'non-fiction novel' exploring the lives of the residents of Mumbai's Annawadi slum.
The play follows the lives and fates of various slum-dwellers, including Abdul an entrepreneurial teenage garbage trader; Sunil a stunted child garbage picker; Asha, a social-climbing fixer and her studious daughter Manju; and Fatima, a vengeful one-legged prostitute. Runs until 13 April. Broadcast live in cinemas on 12 March 2015.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What the critics like
Rufus Norris's production brings the book to the stage "in compelling style" letting the book's characters live and breathe, says Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph. The evening unforgettably communicates a shaming sense of a world in which life is cheap and a piece of detritus can be the gateway to transient salvation.
Hare's "remarkable, sweeping and very human play" is a magnificent achievement, pulsing with theatricality and human spirit, says Stephen Collins on British Theatre. There is a great sense of spectacle in Hare's vision and it comes to graphic, kaleidoscopic reality under the direction of Norris.
This ambitious adaptation turns Boo's book into "a widescreen epic", says Stephen Dalton in the Hollywood Reporter. Striking theatrical flourishes make for a lively spectacle that dramatises a topical tale on a grand, Dickensian scale, and it's refreshing to see so many South Asian characters, many of them female, on a major London stage.
What they don't like
Hare's play is in sore need of a de-cluttering and ends up "more sprawling than epic", says Dominic Maxwell in The Times. It's a shame, because there are enough beautifully played moments here to make you long for another draft of this intelligent but diffuse play that piles on too many agonies.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - March 17, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - history repeating, the Pope's white flag, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Derelict homes, Welsh mines, and vinyl
Podcast What can we do about abandoned property? Are old mines still doing us harm? And what do LP sales tell us about the economy?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Dresden: on the trail of a Romantic icon in Germany
the week recommends The Saxon city celebrates the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich this year
By The Week UK Published
-
Entangled Pasts: Art, Colonialism and Change review – an 'ambitious' and 'well meaning' exhibition
The Week Recommends The exhibition examines works of the African diaspora and historic links to colonialism
By The Week UK Published
-
The Hills of California review: 'ambitious, substantial and intriguing' play
The Week Recommends Jez Butterworth's 'ambitions are as large as ever', but does the play compare to his previous works?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Cute review: an 'unsettling' yet 'highly seductive' exhibition
The Week Recommends The concept of cuteness is explored in full force at this Somerset House show
By The Week UK Published
-
Plaza Suite: Sarah Jessica Parker is 'terrific entertainment'
The Week Recommends Sex and the City star plays against type in London's hottest ticket at the Savoy Theatre
By The Week Staff Published
-
Restaurant 1890 by Gordon Ramsay review: luxury service with a welcoming mood
The Week Recommends Beautiful wine and food only enhanced by impeccable service
By Neil Davey Published
-
Pauline Boty: A Portrait exhibition review
The Week Recommends The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the work of a "largely forgotten" British artist up close.
By The Week UK Published
-
Manon review: Royal Ballet raises the bar with superb cast
The Week Recommends 'Thrilling, grown-up entertainment' for ballet lovers
By The Week Staff Published
-
'Chaucer Here and Now' at the Bodleian Libraries
The Week Recommends The influence of the so-called 'father of English literature' is tracked throughout the centuries in this 'small but special' exhibition
By The Week UK Published