62. They Came To A City - Southwark Playhouse

Alas for the shows that fail to make an impact, they always manage to throw a spanner in the works more than any other when it comes to reviews. It’s so much easier to write about things if you love/loathe them that when things fall between the two it can really give me writers block. Anyhow whilst I’ve been desperately trying to work out what to write about They Came To A City, I have managed to scrabble several other reviews, about shows I had actual opinions on, together, so if things go according to plan there might be a trickle of reviews tonight (I was going to say a flood of reviews but I think that would be overly hopeful).


It’s certainly not that They Came to a City was bad, though I find the play itself quite slow, the social ideas it explores are interesting and still very relevant for today. This relevancy did get a little lost though as the production remained very faithful to it’s time period, not just in costumes, but also performing in a very mannered, gentle style. The characters relatively calm reactions to their transportation and possible death was a little alienating for me and meant that whilst I could intellectually see the social arguments occurring in the play as still true, I didn’t feel it or quite believe it. I’d be interested to see this performed with a more modern sensibility as I think it could still feel quite powerful. Here it lacked any sense of urgency and I think it suffered for that, it also without anything production wise to make it stand out was rather quickly forgotten. I didn’t really dwell on the play at all.

But I did rather enjoy it whilst I was watching it, there was some nice performances from James Robinson, Charlotte Donachie and, particularly Jean Perkins as the lovely Mrs Batley. I also found Daniel Souter utterly heartbreaking to watch in his final scenes and found the relationship Souter and Jessica Francis as his wife created one of the most fascinating within the play.

Overall though this just didn’t stick with me and it’s left the memory of the production feeling a little bit hollow. Though it’s not a lost Priestley classic, there’s definite promise in the play and it’s a shame in the end that the production didn’t manage to make more of it.