Reviews will be updated in this entry as they come.
If I never see the word “accent” again, it will be too soon.

Damian O'Hare as Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath", currently at the West Yorkshire Playhouse / Quarry Theatre in Leeds.

THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE

“(…) Steinbeck would have been proud of that, and I think he would have approved this production. I can think of no higher praise. (…)”

LEEDS STUDENT ONLINE

“(…) Damian O’Hare gives a stellar performance as Tom Joad, the headstrong idealist of the family, recently returned from prison. His deep Southern drawl is impeccable, as are the accents of others, creating a realism that pervades the play. (…)”

DIGYORKSHIRE.COM ****

“(…) Stand-out performances come from Damian O’Hare playing Tom Joad, a parolee who becomes increasingly militant as their journey progresses. (…)”

THE PUBLIC REVIEWS

“(…) Damian O’Hare as Tom Joad manages to get increasingly militant without alienating or irritating the audience. (…)”

YORKSHIRE POST

“(…) A difficult play for difficult times, perhaps, but like the scorched earth of the Californian desert it too often fails to show signs of life. (…)”

TWITTER SAYS…

“(…) Superb production with full rainstorm on stage. Glad not sitting at front. (…)” – @ Woman_In_White

“The Grapes of Wrath” are heading north, and you can see the production, featuring Christopher Timothy as Pa Joad, Sorcha Cusack as Ma Joad, Damian O’Hare as Tom Joad and Oliver Cotton as Jim Casy, from

3 – 14 November at the West Yorkshire Playhouse / Quarry Theatre in Leeds

Here’s a preview on the BBC

BBC – Leeds

and just in case you should still be undecided: here’s a preview video, including scenes from the play and interviews with director and actors.

Here’s a note from the theatre regarding the despatch of tickets:

Postal Strike

During the postal strike we’ll not be sending out any tickets for events that take place less than seven days in the future. Please collect your tickets at Box Office.

If you can receive German TV channels, there’s something to look forward to:

On Sunday, 1 November, “Taking the Flak” will premier on “ZDF_neo”, Germany.

The pilot is scheduled for Sunday, 1 November, 2009, 9.55pm (21.55h); the following episodes will be shown on Thursdays, 10.30pm. The German title of the show will be “Taking the Flak – Reporter auf Kriegsfuss.”

There seems to be quite some interest in the series, if the hit numbers for the German version of the website are anything to go by.

Doon Mackichan and Damian O'Hare in "Taking the Flak"

As previously reported, Damian O’Hare is the voice of character “Olf” in VG “Risen”. The game was released on 2 October and has so far received good feedback from the gamer community. If you’re interested in “Risen”, you can have a look at the official website, or watch one of the “step-by-step” guides on youtube (see below). Test downloads are available as well.

Here’s an excerpt from the game, complete with the type of pseudo-medieval music which is the pièce de résistance of spas everywhere. Olf, the character voiced by Damian O’Hare, makes his appearance at 1:21 and has a bit of a sore throat.

You can purchase “Risen” here: PC DVD / Xbox 360

You can now receive alerts for updates on this blog on TWITTER. The Twitter-entries are created automatically by WordPress and consist of the entry-title and a short url.

The Unofficial Damian O’Hare Website on Twitter:

Reviews will be updated in this entry as they come.

THE STIRRER

“The English Touring Theatre’s production may not be to everyone’s taste. But it’s power and resonance cannot be denied.”

THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE

“There are also strong performances from Damian O’Hare as Tom Joad, on parole from prison for killing a man in a brawl and whose fight for justice for those around him puts his own safety in jeopardy; and Oliver Cotton as Jim Casy, the lapsed preacher who struggles to find a role for himself in society. In fact there are no weak links at all in the cast.”

REMOTEGOAT.CO.UK *****

“There are a number of strong and outstanding performances starting off with young Tom Joad the now paroled killer who clearly has an explosive character. Damian O’Hare plays the role with a building tension that you know is going to blow right about now.”

RED BRICK ONLINE

“Overall, the play was a powerful, well-directed performance that is arguably topical in the current financial climate.”

BIRMINGHAM POST ****

“But tellingly the first scene, the chance encounter on the road between Tom Joad, returning from jail, and Casey, the former preacher turned sceptic, has a focused intimacy (and a clarity of delivery from Damian O’Hare and Oliver Cotton that we don’t always experience in this theatre) which immediately gives a momentum to the narrative which is sustained throughout the first act.”

REVIEWS GATE

“This is an acting company to match the epic nature of the story and it’s uniformly strong.”

THE PUBLIC REVIEWS

“This is not a play to be watched if you’re keen for a good laugh.It is a provocative, honest account of a family’s struggle to remain a family, and well worth seeing.”

BIRMINGHAM MAIL

“OK, so no-one expects John Steinbeck to be a bundle of laughs but the relentless nature of this adaptation of his epic Dust Bowl novel The Grapes of Wrath is enough to batter us all into the ground.”

AND LO AND BEHOLD – TWITTER

“Excellent performances from Cusack and Cotton in particular. Great cast – great show. (…) Excellent production of Grapes Of Wrath despite casts American accents ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.” @simongreenwich

“The Grapes of Wrath at Birmingham Rep last night. Very good.” @DavidCalcutt

“Thought Grapes of Wrath at the Rep was marvelloos: Bleak, bleak, bleak, bleak, bleak.” @ZalieAn

“… good acting & prod, just felt it didn’t quite work – felt like a novel on stage. Loved the jalopody” @deccers

“It was a good play, but Metro review this morning  didn’t like it… there’s no pleasing some people!” @cahmn

“… great productions (…) They raise the spirit.” @RodDungate

“great story, excellent production, ingenious set. Stunned silence from audience – brilliant!” – @spideytim

“V. depressing but good.”

“There was this really fit guy and he stripped all the way down to his boxers! Ahha.”

Damian O'Hare as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath.

A gallery with screencaps of the extras on the “Taking the Flak” DVD is now available on the website.

TAKING THE FLAK: DVD EXTRAS

You can still see “The Grapes of Wrath” at The King’s Theatre in Edinburgh until this Saturday. The next stop of the tour will then be

BIRMINGHAM, REPERTORY THEATRE

from 20 to 31 of October.

Locals will be happy to hear that

SMOOTH RADIO GIVES AWAY FREE TICKETS

- if you can give the correct answer to the competition question. Just click the link above and tell them who wrote “The Grapes of Wrath”.

There’s also a preview in the

BIRMINGHAM POST (incl. interview with Christopher Timothy)

“(…) I heard that a few people have walked out in the interval, saying ‘I can’t take any more and I know it gets worse’. I think they meant the story and not the performances! (…)”

 

Damian O'Hare as Tom Joad and Oliver Cotton as Jim Casy in "The Grapes of Wrath".

Updated as they come.

WHATSONSTAGE.COM (review by Rebecca Hale) *****

“(…) The performances of Tom (Damian O’Hare) and Ma Joad (Sorcha Cusack) are worthy of particular note. (…)”

“(…) This is a must see: there are few laughs and strangely for the subject matter, it is not a tear-jerker. However, watching this play is a humbling experience because it leaves the audience wondering how they would fare if they had a real-life role to play in this fictional, but too-true story. This is what Steinbeck intended. (…)”

LOTHIAN LIFE (review by Ros MacKenzie)

“(…) this powerful piece of theatre resonates in this time of new depression. (…)”

ONSTAGE SCOTLAND (review by Michael Cox)  ***

“(…) This is not to say that it is a bad production, because it isn’t.  The three hours do pass fairly quickly, and there are some rather good performances, notably from Oliver Cotton as the fallen Reverend Jim Casy, Sorcha Cusack as kind-hearted matriarch Ma Joad, Christopher Timothy as hard-working and honest Pa Joad and Damian O’Hare as the recently paroled and politically conscious son Tom. (…)”

THE SCOTSMAN (review by Susan Mansfield)

“(…) Last night a man in the audience gave us a standing ovation. He was an American whose grandfather was driven off his 300-acre farm in 1935 in return for $1. How relevant is that? What about the immigrants in this country who are being ripped off picking fruit now? Nothing changes, does it? (…)”

THE SCOTSMAN (review by Joyce McMillan) ****

“(…) And if the production never does quite enough to escape from its period, and overcome the resistance of those in the audience who seem more interested in the family’s vintage truck than in their human tragedy, it still tells this great story with directness and passion, for anyone who wants to hear it. (…)”

THE SCOTSMAN (review by Thom Dibdin)

“(…) A truly tragic and epic tale, told with just the right balance of realism and suggestion to entertain and leave you reeling at mankind’s worst instincts. (…)”

And because it’s the audience buying the tickets, not the critics:

READER REVIEWS

“(…) The script was a clever mix of comedy and sadness. (…)”

“(…) This was my first play and it was very good. (…)”

“(…) It was absolutely brilliant. All the actors were extremely good. (…)”

AND OF COURSE, THERE’S TWITTER…

“Grapes of Wrath at King’s Theatre – well-played and affecting. If full of wonky accents. Unless Steinbeck was writing about Manchester.” – emusiclove

Damian O'Hare as Tom Joad and Christopher Timothy as Pa Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath".

Updated as reviews turn up.

THE HERALD: “A COMPELLING, EPIC DRAMA”

“(…) Damian O’Hare as virtuous yet tough ex jailbird anti-hero Tom takes up Casey’s standard and becomes labour organiser… (…)”

“(…) Drama can be grim and gruelling, but it can be uplifting too. Here it even finds shafts of humour. Utterly compelling.  (…)”