‘It’s like an episode of Coronation Street’ – Cuckoo evaluation

“It’s like an episode of Coronation Street,” mentioned a fellow theatregoer within the interval of Michael Wynne’s play.

The similar thought had crossed my thoughts whereas watching a family of girls in Liverpool eat a fish and chip supper and speak about their lives whereas making an attempt to take care of some form of equilibrium with the (unseen) males whose behaviour appears to vary from the unreliable to the treacherous.

Directed by Vicky Featherstone – outgoing inventive director of the Royal Court – the manufacturing is agreeably strong and fantastically acted. Matriarch Doreen (Sue Jenkins), her daughters Carmel (Michelle Butterly) and Sarah (Jodie McNee) and Emma Harrison making her skilled debut as Carmel’s troubled daughter, Megyn, carry a sturdy and tousled humanity to the stage.

But its import is misleading. The nagging doubt that I used to be lacking some hidden agenda continued all through as it is a play wherein nothing occurs, as soon as. 

Wynne’s astute ear for dialogue and his embrace of lengthy silences punctuated by the blips and pings of cell phones are assured.

Carmel’s dread of world annihilation (it may be no coincidence that Harrison resembles Greta Thunberg) contrasts with the suggestion that Doreen is healthier outfitted to cope with the vicissitudes of recent life than her daughters or granddaughter.

Thoughtful, however too elusive to be really provocative.

Cuckoo, Royal Court Theatre till August 19. Tickets: 020 7565 5000