JOSEPH K - PRESS REVIEWS
THE TELEGRAPH 4 Stars - Dominic Cavendish
“Throughout, Basden treads an impressive line between serving the spirit - and even at times the letter - of the original and creating something that feels freshly minted.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/8152280/Joseph-K-Gate-Theatre-Notting-Hill-review.html
THE INDEPENDENT 4 Stars - Alice Jones
“Pip Carter, a rising National Theatre star, plays the hero with just the right blend of bullish machismo and exasperation.”
“This is clever writing from Basden, rapidly making a name for himself as one of British theatre's fastest – and funniest – rising stars. “
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/joseph-k-gate-theatre-london-2149830.html
THE LONDONIST Jon Davis
“This is Tom Basden’s retelling of Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, a play which beautifully supplants the original’s paper-pushing nightmare into our modern age.”
“Pip Carter perfectly portrays K’s desperation as he tries to maintain his professional exterior and makes him both empathetic and yet dismissive in his dealings with others.”
“These scenes abound with razor sharp wit and satire and if they detract from K’s plight it is perhaps understandable.”
“Sian Brooke, Basden, and his fellow comedian Tim Key play an ensemble of minor characters to great effect. This clever device not only makes the audience and K question whether they are who they say they are, but more importantly lets Basden display his brilliant versatility and Key deliver his hilarious, off the cuff, one liners.”
http://londonist.com/2010/12/theatre-review-joseph-k-the-gate-theatre.php
THE GUARDIAN Lyn Gardner
“The ambiguity gives it power and it's neatly performed by a cast of four, including the author.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/nov/17/joseph-k-review
FINANCIAL TIMES 4 Stars - Ian Shuttleworth
“Chloe Lamford’s wood-panelled “converta-set” is claustrophobic but contemporary, blossoming with computer monitors as a team of unexplained forensic investigators try to establish a paper trail of K’s movements”
“Basden and his fellow member of the comedy group Cowards, Tim Key, comprise half of the cast, and are naturally at home with material that blends three parts absurdity with one of pomposity and a healthy dash of black unease.”
“Basden and Turner’s skill is in stripping this gag of any hint of smirking self-referentiality, so that we find ourselves wondering whether it might after all be just such a tight-knit conspiracy.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c7ca4d26-f339-11df-a4fa-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JbWpRD61
THE STAGE Jason Best
“Darkly comic play that brings out the original work’s mordant humour and semi-surreal oddness.”
“Cleverly, Basden besets his protagonist with mishaps that will be all too familiar to the audience.”
the Gate’s classic-adaptation collaborations with Headlong Theatre and gets big laughs from Joseph’s predicament thanks to skilful comic playing from the cast (which includes Basden himself).
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/30309/joseph-k
TIMEOUT 4 Stars - Andrzej Lukowski
“Basden crafts rib-tickling naturalistic dialogue (an argument about takeaway sushi is golden) and sets up some beautifully weird set-piece gags, such as K's attempt to use an inane CD-ROM guide to the law.”
“If there have been more powerful adaptations of 'The Trial', few have been funnier.”
http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/event/185579/joseph-k
FULHAM AND HAMMERSMITH CHRONICAL Robert Cumber
“Basden has a great feeling for the glorious absurdity of Kafka's oddball creations, with characters ranging from an obsessive doll collector to a horny secretary who's been trapped in the same office for five years.”
“Tim Key is particularly impressive as K's lawyer, one of several roles he assumes, playing him as a camp Latin-spouting Bond villain who's too lazy to take over the world.”
“But the greatest delights are the incidental touches, like a cautionary nursery tale and the bizarre radio game in which listeners are asked to name a mystery sound.”
http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/london-lifestyle/theatre-london/2010/11/18/review-joseph-k-gate-theatre-notting-hill-82029-27674181/
WHAT'S ON STAGE Andrew Girvan
An adaptation of Franz Kafka's 1925 novel The Trial, comedian Tom Basden has written a snappy and genuinely funny script.
The cast are hard working, creating a series of well-formed and discreet scenes for Joseph (thoughtfully played by Pip Carter) to navigate.
Carter brings a vunerability to the role, with an impressive performance which maintains a logic and naturalism in the face of the absurd. Mention should also be given to [Siân Brooke] who demonstrates incredible versatility.
http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/off-west+end/E8831290710461/Joseph+K.html
MUSIC OMH 4 Stars – Natasha Tripney
"the production’s strengths lie in the general sense of powerlessness and impotence Joseph feels in the face of the tyranny of bureaucracy – something that’s as potent as it’s ever been.
Lyndsey Turner’s production maintains a number of balances, between the comic and the chilling, between a recognisable world and something more absurd and extreme.
The tiny Gate stage is made to feel remarkably versatile
http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/lon_joseph-k_1110.htm
THE OTHER SIDE Michael Currell
“The lead is played with measured empathy and disillusionment by Pip Carter, a performance that allows us to witness the wane of his mental state, whilst struggling to maintain a slick professional exterior around his banker peers.”
“But what Basden has achieved with great affect is to create his own un-real reality, whereby all these themes and notions of contemporary life exist, are discussed, remain unanswered but importantly are recognized not as the contrivances of a surreal piece of dystopian theatre, but as ambiguous constructs of our everyday lives.”
http://www.theothersidemag.co.uk/2010/12/joseph-k-the-gate-theatre-w11/