PRESSREVIEWSMAGPIE (feature debut)THE GUARDIAN 4**** “Daisy Ridley shines in tense, compelling portrait of a toxic relationship… brutally compelling”. VARIETY “Has a kicky crowd-pleasing resonance… builds toward a climax that’s disarmingly satisfying. It’s one of those “Usual Suspects”/ ”Saltburn” twists.” SCREEN DAILY “An assured, gratifyingly cheeky debut by Yates.” INDIE WIRE “Daisy Ridley Revolts in a Tight, Twisty Battle of the Sexes… Yates acquits himself admirably with a limited, steely color palette, tight editing, and an emphasis on the actors. “ COLLIDER 8/10 “Magpie is one of those rare films that feels both fresh and alive while building off classic genre works of the past..This Daisy Ridley at her best.” SCREEN RANT “The fact that first-time director Sam Yates manages to pull off such a stunning and effective film is impressive… Daisy Ridley stuns in compelling, intoxicating, psychological thriller.” ROGER EBERT “”Magpie” is a marital thriller with noir trappings galore, including an almost ridiculously convoluted (yet satisfying) conclusion. Still, it’s most effective as the study of an angry wife’s chaotic psychological state.”
VANYA by Simon Stephens (after Anton Chekhov) (Duke of Yorks)★★★★★ THE FINANCIAL TIMES “This is a beautiful, heartbreaking response to Chekhov’s tragicomedy, which drills into its essence and marvels afresh at the playwright’s ability to craft characters that feel so recognisable… Tremendous.” ★★★★★ EVENING STANDARD “This one-man Vanya is a revelation and a sensation.” ★★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE “Wow. This astonishing version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is a tour-de-force by the actor Andrew Scott.” ★★★★★ TIME OUT “It is a truly remarkable stage performance, that seems to go beyond acting and on to something like a shamanic act of empathy.” ★★★★★ THE i NEWSPAPER “Andrew Scott’s one-man Chekhov is the performance of the year.” ★★★★★ BROADWAY WORLD “Extraordinary…an exceptionally eclectic and relentlessly engaging piece of theatre.” ★★★★★ REVIEWS HUB “Powerful and brave, Vanya is a meditation on existence itself.” ★★★★★ LONDON THEATRE “You won’t find a more remarkable actor doing a more remarkable piece of theatre anywhere in the West End.” ★★★★★ MEDIUM “The best performance I’ve seen all year. The adaptation is one of the best and clearest versions of Vanya I’ve seen. It’s heartbreakingly sad at times, then sharply witty.” ★★★★ THE OBSERVER “Tremendous… What goes on is fiercer than traditional Chekhov… This cooperation – a true theatricality – has something of Chekhov’s antiheroic generosity.” ★★★★ SUNDAY TIMES “Astonishing… A Chekhov gem to watch in awe… Vanya is remarkable, deluxe craftsmanship credited to four masterful creators.” ★★★★ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH “Mesmerising. An emotionally charged piece of event theatre.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT “Funny, sexy and surprisingly emotional.” ★★★★ THE STAGE “This is theatre that gets under the skin: remarkable.”
THE TWO CHARACTER PLAY by Tennessee Williams (Hampstead)★★★★★ MARK SHENTON, SHENTON STAGE “I was gripped, riveted and moved… surprised and enthralled.” ★★★★★ THEATRE-NEWS “A superb rebirth… true theatrical art.” ★★★★ EVENING STANDARD “Mould-breaking power restored to Tennessee Williams’ most daring play.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT “A strange, profound delight.” ★★★★ FINANCIAL TIMES “O’Flynn and Varla are excellent… volatile and painfully vulnerable… powerful.” ★★★★ MATT WOLF, THEATRE LONDON “Immensely daring.” ★★★★ THE ARTS DESK “Tender, poetic and piercingly cruel. A timely return for Tennessee Williams’ long-neglected play.” ★★★★ DAILY EXPRESS “Funny, sad, horrific, and unbearably poignant… A real discovery.” ★★★★ EXEUNT MAGAZINE “Profound… haunting… utterly contemporary.” ★★★★ THE SPY IN THE STALLS “Always mesmerising, totally memorable. A masterpiece of theatre.” ★★★★ CITY AM “Genuinely powerful.” ★★★★ THE UPCOMING “Enthralling… a memorable experience.” A SEPARATE PEACE by Tom Stoppard (Zoom)★★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Mark Lawson “If, for however long, this is live theatre’s future, then it works triumphantly. ★★★★★ BRITISH THEATRE | Mark Ludmon “A Separate Peace marks the start of what promises to be an exciting series of online productions for our age of isolation.” ★★★★★ THE UPCOMING | LAURA BOYLE “A Separate Peace, the proceeds of which support The Felix Project and Apples & Oranges, is brilliantly executed and deeply relevant. The reading is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” ★★★★ THE STAGE | Tim Bano “Sam Yates‘ Zoom production opens up some really exciting avenues for using the structures and strictures of technology.”
INCANTATA adapted from poem by Paul Muldoon (Galway, Gate, Dublin, Irish Rep, New York)NEW YORK TIMES Critic’s Pick “Spellbinding… unique and beautiful… it has a peculiar charm, a touch of magic.” ★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Helen Meany “Stanley Townsend brings the poet’s searing love poetry to life in a visually stunning show boasting some Beckettian touches.” ★★★★ THE IRISH TIMES | Peter Crawley “Here, then, in all its display and transformations, is grief as an artform.” ★★★★ IRISH EXAMINER | Padraic Killeen “What makes this a remarkable piece of theatre, however, is director Sam Yates’s frenzied use of sound and vision to complement, and foil, Muldoon’s raw and riveting lament. It all makes for a brilliantly unstable experience, the play teetering between order and disorder, as Townsend’s wild cacophony of memory fragments struggles to extract from life some sense of a redemptive unity.” THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT | Emer O’Kelly “The performance is a monumental collaboration so perfect (glowingly directed by Sam Yates, designed by Rosanna Vize with Teho Teardo’s music, Jack Phelan’s video and lit by Paul Keogan with Sinead Diskin’s sound), that the poem’s kaleidoscopic images do more than freeze themselves individually into the mind… Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) seems to have a genius in its choice of co-production. In this case, it’s Jen Coppinger and Poetry Ireland. And, of course, the electrifying Stanley Townsend.” RTÉ ARENA on Incantata “Amazing performance. Amazing visuals. Beautiful. Highly recommended.” GALWAY CITY TRIBUNE on Incantata “A dizzying journey through grief and loss…the dream production team.” THE NEW YORK TIMES | Scott Heller ‘That festival, and the Galway theater scene in general, has been a major launching pad for such playwrights as Martin McDonagh (“The Beauty Queen of Leenane”) and Enda Walsh (“Misterman,” “Once”)… Another festival highlight: a video-ornamented stage adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning poet Paul Muldoon’s “Incantata.” It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ll hear more about all three plays, as Irish work has been regularly presented on the London and New York stages, at St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Irish Arts Center.” THE IRISH TIMES | Deirdre Falvey Festival roundup “One of the prides of this year’s festival…a glorious burst of poetic intensity in Stanley Townsend’s magnificent grief- and rage-laden performance in Paul Muldoon’s Incantata produced with Jen Coppinger.”
THE PHLEBOTOMIST by Ella Road (Hampstead Theatre, Downstairs and Main House)★★★★ THE TELEGRAPH “Sam Yates’s gripping production.” ★★★★ THE FINANCIAL TIMES “A smart and unsettling play.” ★★★★ THE OBSERVER “Jade Anouka brings gleaming geniality.” ★★★★ THE METRO “Superbly wrought… very now.” ★★★★ SUNDAY EXPRESS “An elegant, excellently actress production.” ★★★★★ BRITISH THEATRE “The Phlebotomist has opened upstairs at Hampstead Theatre after a successful run in its downstairs space last year, earning it a nomination in this year’s Olivier Awards.” ★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Lyn Gardner “A gasp-worthy dystopian thriller… It comes very neatly packaged in a production by Sam Yates that elicits terrific performances, particularly from Anouka as a woman who wants a sure return on her emotional investments, but discovers real love is unconditional.” ★★★★ THE EVENING STANDARD | Henry Hitchins “Sam Yates’s lean production uses video to establish the play’s futuristic context, and the action takes place on a long traverse stage, which means the characters seem like lab specimens chosen for the audience’s anxious scrutiny.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE | Daisy Bowie-Sell “Sam Yates’ direction is sharp-eyed and he deals with the many changes in scene very well, letting the set become a messy space filled with props and costume detritus…The characters are nicely drawn and the whole cast is strong, particularly Anouka and Cherrelle Skeete as Char, who have a brilliantly warm and real friendship.” ★★★★ THE STAGE | Briget Minamore “Vincent Ebrahim’s zen, wise David and Cherrelle Skeete’s career-driven, fearful then hopeful Char—both shine.” ★★★★★ THE UPCOMING | Daniel Amir “Director Sam Yates has not only managed the feat of eliciting these well-rounded performances, but of making room economically for beautiful theatrical images and allowing the set to expand and contract between the private and public.” GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS by David Mamet (Playhouse Theatre, West End, and No.1 UK Tour)★★★★★ THE METRO | John Nathan “Slater, as the slickest operator Ricky Roma, delivers a superbly judged performance of measured aggression.” ★★★★★ BRITISH THEATRE | Mark Ludmon “In this brilliant revival directed by Sam Yates, the play builds up slowly into a taut and gripping display of cunning and deceit as four salesmen are swept along in what is for them a matter of life and death.” ★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Michael Billington “This latest revival has a tip-top cast headed by Christian Slater… The joy of the play lies in its language, which ricochets off the walls like a ball in a squash court and which is roundly relished in Sam Yates’s production.” ★★★★ THE OBSERVER | Susan Sheahan “A spectacular interrogation of self-deception and greed in a world of merciless capitalism.” ★★★★ THE TIMES | Ann Treneman “Christian Slater… is brilliant, dominating the stage as he does the office.” ★★★★ EVENING STANDARD | Henry Hitchins “A vision of toxic masculinity, heartless greed and the way both these things seem to flourish in the marketplace.” ★★★★ THE FINANCIAL TIMES | Ian Shuttleworth “Yates tackles the playwright’s famously blistering dialogue as if it were music…finely polished production…packed with superb moments.” ★★★★ TIME OUT | Andrzej Lukowski “A startlingly short, painfully sharp, excavation of the desperation that lies under the alpha male ego.” ★★★★ THE i NEWSPAPER | Holly Williams “Christian Slater is simply superb.” ★★★★ THE ARTS DESK | Aleks Sierz “A masterclass in testosterone-fuelled acting…Sam Yates’s well-focused production, designed by Chiara Stephenson, orchestrates the music of the text… And Yates fields a cast of heavy-hitters.” ★★★★ THE DAILY EXPRESS | Neil Norman “A short, sharp, savagely entertaining night… Director Sam Yates reins in the play’s paranoia which makes it even more effective, as if the characters are deluding themselves as much as their targets.” ★★★★ MAIL ON SUNDAY | Robert Gore-Langton “The lean, macho dialogue is so sharp you could shave with it. But the great thing about Sam Yates’s revival is just how funny it is. You feel the glee of the salesmen’s old war stories.” ★★★★ THE DAILY MAIL | Quentin Letts “Has the American dream ever been sketched so clearly as a recipe for gastric acid attacks?… Sam Yates, the director, has assembled a top cast. The salesmen are slick Ricky (Christian Slater), forlorn George (Don Warrington), failing Levene (Stanley Townsend) and embittered Moss (Robert Glenister). Every actor a winner.” ★★★★ RADIO TIMES | Kasia Delgado “This production is a mesmerising dissection of how warped masculinity can reap carnage.” ★★★★ CITY AM | Steve Dinneen “Frequently hilarious…It is a joy to see Mamet’s words brought to life with such verve.” HUFFINGTON POST | David Finkle “This outing, directed with clicking authority by Sam Yates, is a doozy…The most distressed is Shelly Levene (Stanley Townsend, in an award-teasing performance). The other end-of-tether salesmen are expertly played by Kris Marshall, Robert Glenister and Don Warrington.” THE SPECTATOR | Lloyd Evans “(Christian Slater and Stanley Townsend) really are like two great musicians reaching the highest pitch of their art and loving every minute of it. The effect is extraordinary. Everything in life, the show seems to suggest, is a ridiculous artifice: the patter of salesmen, the storyline of the play, the stage itself, the whole of drama. All the sliding doors of concealment and illusion are laid bare for our delighted perusal and yet the show never releases its grip on the bitter truths of its storyline.” CYMBELINE by William Shakespeare (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Globe Theatre)One To Watch | THE INDEPENDENT | Emily Barber “Sam Yates’s sophisticated production… takes beautifully simple and fully-felt advantage of the venue’s candle-lit intimacy.” Critics’ Choice | THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | Best plays now on “Director Sam Yates embraces the fairytale aspects of the drama with an enthusiasm kept in check by excellently clear verse-speaking and moments of piercing emotional clarity.” THE NEW YORK TIMES | Matt Wolf “One would be hard-pressed to come across a more delightful reckoning of this particular text than can now be found at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse…Mr. Yates’s cast brings together a welcome mixture of ethnicities and accents, as seems appropriate to a story that traverses multiple locales, while keeping at least one foot grounded in the otherworldly realm of the fairy tale.” ★★★★ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | Jane Shilling “Sam Yates’s engaging production gets its priorities right: the verse is spoken with precision; the virtues (and faults) of the text are honestly acknowledged. And the audience responded with warmth.” ★★★★ THE FINANCIAL TIMES | Sarah Hemming “Sam Yates’s spry, immensely engaging production… Pauline McLynn is a joy as the queen … Emily Barber’s posh, brave and funny Innogen is wonderful.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT | Paul Taylor “Sam Yates’s production rises to the drama’s complicated occasion in a production that takes beautifully simple and fully-felt advantage of the venue’s gilded, candle-lit intimacy… An exceptionally skilful and engaging cast expedite Yates’s poetically supple and humane vision of the piece.” ★★★★ EVENING STANDARD | Henry Hitchins “Director Sam Yates works hard to make this mishmash of tragedy, comedy, history and romance appear coherent. The result is a clear, engaging production that relishes the play… as Innogen newcomer Emily Barber projects just the right mix of innocence, vigour and humour.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE | Dasiy Bowie-Sell “It’s one of the highlights of a production that is full of surprises.” ★★★★ THE STAGE | Gerald Berkowitz “Sam Yates’ fast-moving and never flagging production. Emily Barber plays as strong and assertive, equally passionate in love, anger and grief.” ★★★★ THEATRE CAT | Libby Purves (BBC Radio 4) “Yates’ cast permit us (amid the moving embraces) to shake with gales of laughter. That’s the way to do it… Emily Barber as Innogen: graduated only last year and a real find.” ★★★★ MY THEATRE MATES | Jonathan Baz “Barber’s performance is a high point, offering a lively representation of youth, love and beauty of heart… well worth seeing.” ★★★★ THE TIMES | Kate Bassett “Sam Yates’ staging becomes almost beatific at the close… This Cymbeline indeed reaches a transcendent plane of forgiveness, serene peace and joy that genuinely feels like salvation.” ★★★★ THE METROPOLIST | Josh Phillips “But that it doesn’t just hang together, but positively sings, is testament to Yates’ sensitivity as a director, his acute awareness of the text’s highs and its lows, its shortcomings as well as its triumphs, and the cast’s commitment to a difficult play.” ★★★★ LIVE THEATRE UK | Stephen Collins “Emily Barber plays Imogen as smart, independent and outspoken … It’s a complete and totally captivating performance. THEATRE GUIDE LONDON | Gerald Berkowitz “Yates discovers that the happy, sometimes mock-heroic, sometimes silly for the sake of being silly, audience-embracing quality of a panto does carry the play more effectively.” BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE | Howard Loxton “This is a production in which almost every layer is in command of the verse, making sense flow freely so that it works its effect without drawing undue attention to its form.” PHILLY.COM | Toby Zinman “A theatrical experience both entertaining and transporting, authentic and fine in a rare way.” EAST IS EAST by Ayub Khan Din (Trafalgar Studios, West End)★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Lyn Gardner “Director Sam Yates announces himself as a major talent in a revival, played out on Tom Scutt’s clever, deceptively flexible design, which is pleasingly fluid…and which always puts truth before comedy. The payoff is a show that delivers the laughs even as it hurts.” ★★★★ THE TIMES | Sam Marlowe “Thrillingly vital. A play with guts, wit and a big, beating heart” ★★★★ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | Jane Shilling “Sally Bankes’s high-energy performance as the gossipy Catholic neighbour, Auntie Annie, lights up the stage, and the final scene, a disastrous betrothal tea-party, is a comic gem.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT | Paul Taylor “It brings Jane Horrocks back to stage in a terrific, gutsy-yet-sensitive portrayal of Ella… Ayub Khan Din’s performance skilfully manages to bring out what is tragicomically impossible about this interfering, overbearing figure… a crack cast.” ★★★★ FINANCIAL TIMES | Sarah Hemming “Jane Horrocks, brusque, tough, tender, cigarette permanently in hand, is beautifully observed as the mother torn between her husband and her children… Sam Yates’ crisp, funny revival…is period, yet resonates powerfully today.” ★★★★ THE MAIL ON SUNDAY | Georgina Brown “The scene when the girls’ parents come to tea, a wonderfully witty nod to Shaw’s Pygmalion, is the comic highlight of Sam Yates’s revival. A belter, as Ella would have said.” ★★★★ TIME OUT (Critics’ Choice) | Rachel Halliburton “Sam Yates directs the action with pace and flair, as we gaze down on Tom Scutt’s cosily claustrophobic set, comprised of a red brick backdrop, nine battered black wooden doors, and a couple of sofas that look ready for retirement.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE | Michael Coveney “The marvel of Sam Yates’s superbly cast revival – with the author himself playing the Muslim paterfamilias – is that it still works as a cunningly engineered drama of assimilation and resentments.” ★★★★ LONDON THEATRE | Mark Shenton “Sam Yates and his designer Tom Scutt bring a period realism to the setting, but the play strikes a universal resonance for any time and any family.” ★★★★ EXEUNT MAGAZINE | Alice Saville “Directed by Sam Yates, this is a brilliantly funny production.” ★★★★ CITY A.M. | Steve Dinneen “Jane Horrocks shines as the long-suffering, chain-smoking mother who attempts to juggle her husband’s demands with her children’s expectation of certain western freedoms.” THE SPECTATOR | Lloyd Evans “This play is one of the gems of the theatrical repertoire, and Sam Yates’s production is pretty near flawless.” HUFFINGTON POST | Victoria Sadler “The direction from Sam Yates is superb. The scenes flow effortlessly into one another, keeping the energy and drive throughout the two-hour running time.” DAILY MAIL | Baz Bamigboye “Director Sam Yates draws out the humour and there are some great belly laughs, but I was also struck by a powerful moment when Khan-Din’s George hits Horrocks’s Ella.The difference in size makes the assault all the more shocking, and adds a dynamic I hadn’t considered when I saw the play at the Royal Court… a crowd-pleaser that makes you think. And the ensemble’s superb.” TNT MAGAZINE | Louise Kingsley “Playwright Khan Din is now old enough to take on the role of George himself and, under Sam Yates’ clever direction, reveals the sad perplexity beneath his despotic exterior as the next generation embraces Western ways.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | William Langley “Jane Horrocks has made an unlikely return to the big time in East is East, a West End hit… Critics described 50-year-old Horrocks’ performance as “terrific, gutsy, sensitive”, “beautifully judged” and “chirpily resilient”.” THE EL. TRAIN Three One-Act Plays by Eugene O’Neill (Hoxton Hall)★★★★★ THE OBSERVER | Kate Kellaway “Sam Yates proves himself a director of unusual flair with a pitch-perfect sense of O’Neill’s prose and of theatrical sound: the thunder of train and storm.” ★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Michael Billington“Ruth Wilson and Sam Yates have joined forces to direct, in a former Victorian music hall, three early Eugene O’Neill plays written between 1913 and 1918. The result is a spellbinding 90-minute evening… It all makes for an extraordinary occasion, from which one emerges feeling that the rawness of the writing is outweighed by O’Neill’s Hardyesque concern with mankind’s endless struggle against a merciless destiny.” ★★★★ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | Jane Shilling “Remarkable…The staging is bleakly beautiful, the original score by Alex Baranowski sensational, the performances brutally truthful.” ★★★★ THE TIMES | Sam Marlowe (Critics’ Choice) “In these tales of desperation, every moment pulses with life. Intoxicating and savagely compelling.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT | Holly Williams “Three short one-acts plays by Eugene O’Neill are brought together in a snazzily tricked out old music hall in east London, given a speakeasy vibe complete with smokin’ live jazz and a cocktail bar dubbed the Hell Hole after O’Neill’s favourite haunt.” ★★★★ THE WEEK “Critics are praising a trio of short dramas by Eugene O’Neill, The El Train at Hoxton Hall, as “spellbinding” and “savagely compelling”. The three one-act plays (The Web, Before Breakfast and The Dreamy Kid) feature performances and direction by Ruth Wilson (Luther, The Lone Ranger).” ★★★★ TIME OUT | Andrzej Lukowski (Critics’ Choice) “This trio of his early shorts bite painfully deep in the age of Atos, austerity and the bedroom tax.” THE AMERICAN | Jarlath O’Connell “All three are mini masterpieces in dramatic tension and like a perfect short story they make you long for more.” THE DAILY MAIL | Baz Bamigboye “Ruth Wilson is superb in a pair of one-act Eugene O’Neill plays at the Hoxton Hall in East London. Wilson directs a third O’Neill short, which completes The El Train line-up, and there’s great jazz — and a marvellous bar.” THE EVENING STANDARD | Louise Jury “Ruth Wilson has admitted that going to the theatre in the West End leaves her cold, but that she is having a ball making her directing debut in a rather shabby hall in east London.” THE GUARDIAN | Andrew Dickson “Ruth Wilson and her co-director, Sam Yates, are even building a pop-up saloon modelled on the one the playwright notoriously frequented… “I knew I wanted to direct,” she says, “but didn’t know what or when.” Then she got talking to Yates, “and he said, ‘I’ve found these amazing O’Neill shorts, you should come and read some.’ I’ve been in love with O’Neill ever since doing Anna Christie, so I did.” Soon, the pair were auditioning actors, then plunged straight into rehearsals.” THE GUARDIAN | Matt Trueman “Ruth Wilson will star in The Web and Before Breakfast, both of which O’Neill wrote in his 20s, and make her directing debut with The Dreamy Kid. Both shows will be directed by Sam Yates, who has impressed critics with a string of dusted-down classics at the Finborough theatre, including Cornelius and Mixed Marriage. “I’m thrilled to be presenting three of Eugene O’Neill’s lesser-known, one-act plays at London’s historic Hoxton Hall,” he said. “Written when O’Neill was in his 20s, these sometimes violent, passionate works show the undeniable genius of one of America’s greatest dramatists.” THE DAILY MAIL | Baz Bamigboye “Ruth will star in two short plays by Eugene O’Neill, and direct a third — marking her theatrical directorial debut — at Hoxton Hall, East London, in December.” WHAT’S ON STAGE | Theo Bosanquet “The plays – The Web, Before Breakfast and The Dreamy Kid – were written between 1913 and 1918 and are being presented together for the first time. Wilson will act in The Web and Before Breakfast, directed by Sam Yates, and will make her directorial debut with The Dreamy Kid.” OUTSIDE MULLINGAR by John Patrick Shanley (Ustinov Theatre, Bath)★★★★ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | Claire Allfree “What makes it special, in Sam Yates’s skilfully attuned production, is the thoroughly lived-in feel of its characters and their gorgeous, knarly dialogue.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE | Kriss Hallett “The writing is so quietly exquisite and the performance so full of love and regret that one forgets to breathe.” ★★★★ THE STAGE | Jeremy Brien “Sam Yates moves the narrative along with gentle skill, replacing recollections of the gloomy, rain-splashed opening with the father’s touching final heart-to-heart with his son.” ★★★★ THE PUBLIC REVIEWS | Claire Hayes “Yates’ direction brings out the change of pace with great poignancy, as Tony in ill-health eventually softens towards his son.” ★★★★ THE BATH CHRONICLE | Jackie Chappell “The cast of four is superb, the characters rounded and relationships believable… a huge hit.” ★★★★★ BRISTOL POST “Would surely figure at the top of an “best” list, if not at the summit.” ★★★★★ STAGE TALK MAGAZINE | Simon Bishop “A wonderful cast…compassionate and delightful.” THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE | Allison Vale “The pitch-perfect cast breathe so much life into these four neighbours that the resulting sense of intimacy is palpable.” BILLY LIAR by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall (Royal Exchange, Manchester)WINNER Manchester Theatre Awards “Billy Liar at the Royal Exchange Theatre claimed two of the acting gongs, Best Actor for Harry McEntire, and Best Newcomer to Emily Barber.” ★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Alfred Hickling “Teenage dreamer is as witty as ever in a fine revival… Sam Yates’ production is played admirably straight to often hilarious effect.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT | Paul Vallely “Pitch-perfect acting…Harry McEntire as Billy – by turns charming, witty, urbane and profoundly self-deluded – is a reminder that Billy does not inhabit the world of Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim but that of the stifling anger of John Osborne with the black humour of Joe Orton… Sam Yates’s ending to the production offers more ambiguity as to why Billy remains trapped than Waterhouse’s novel does. The ending feels bleaker. But it makes it a Billy Liar for our times.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE | Julia Taylor “Sam Yates finds the sadness beneath the humour in Keith Waterhouse’s celebrated text and it works wonderfully well…The poignant moments creep up on you and leave a lasting impact.” ★★★★ THE PUBLIC REVIEWS | Laura Maley “Billy Liar needs a strong central performance and Harry McEntire brings that… Rebekah Hinds is an understated comic gem as Barbara.” ★★★ THE TIMES | Kate Bassett “It’s fabulous…. Revived commendably by rising director Sam Yates… (Harry McEntire’s) physical comedy is highly entertaining. And his waving arms, in the final moments, become frenzied, his body thrashing into a searing blur of complete breakdown.” ★★★★ THE GOOD REVIEW | Tracey Lowe “The cast are absolutely outstanding… does great justice to a wonderful, witty story.” ★★★★ THE MORNING STAR “Sam Yates’s excellent direction and a brilliantly engaging cast… Harry McEntire is a wonderful Billy, making what could be an obnoxious teenager into a vulnerable, scared and sad character whose dream world is neither feckless nor malicious.” ★★★★ NORTHERN SOUL | Lucia Cox “The cast are sublime under the direction of Sam Yates… The sad, lamenting ending is a terrible punch to the guts.” ★★★★ BLACKPOOL GAZETTE | David Upton “Yates reins the play in from becoming physical farce and instead concentrates on it’s brooding satire.” ★★★★ MANCHESTER WOMEN “The latest incarnation of Billy Liar, directed by Sam Yates, is perfectly cast with particularly memorable performances from Harry McEntire as Billy and Katie Moore as Rita.” MANCHESTER THEATRE AWARDS | David Upton “Fine care has been taken with casting throughout, and around Billy are family and girlfriends rooted in all-too-apparent reality.” EXEUNT MAGAZINE | John Murphy “The beauty of Sam Yates’ production – his debut for the Royal Exchange – lies in the detailed approach to character and the performances.” CORNELIUS by J.B. Priestley, 59E59, New York (June 2013)THE NEW YORK TIMES | Ben Brantley (Critics’ Pick) “Expertly directed by Sam Yates…Cornelius, given virtuosic life by Mr. Cox, exudes an infectious, vital engagement with the world around him and a self-aware distance from it…As designed by David Woodhead and acted with in-the-moment precision, Mr. Yates’s production is a work of straightforward naturalism, with subtle suggestions of the numinous provided by Howard Hudson’s lighting and Alex Baranowski’s music…Wonderful.” NEW YORK POST | Frank Scheck “A must-see….Impeccably staged by Sam Yates on David Woodhead’s realistic, ’30s-era office set, the production features superb work by the ensemble… The play’s final moments, in which he unveils a dizzying array of emotions after revealing his love for a much younger woman, won’t be easily forgotten.” HUFFINGTON POST | David Finkle “The marvelously inventive J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) was last represented on Broadway by Stephen Daldry’s elephantine revival of An Inspector Calls, but that was practically an anomaly. The sui generis scribe has barely been noticed locally since his 1930s heyday. So the arrival at 59E59 of his little-known 1935 Cornelius is an opportunity to seize with both hands.” THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | Jennifer Farrar “Yates renders the manners and mores of the period with faithful attention to details, keeping his proficient cast of 16 in orderly motion as events transpire in a large, one-room office. The play was considered edgy when it premiered, and remains relevant nearly eight decades later.” THEATER MANIA | Brian Scott Lipton “Director Sam Yates and his sterling cast, led by the extraordinary Alan Cox, have brought out every nuance of this deeply humane tale, set in the office of a foundering metals import firm.” THE NEW YORKER “Jamie Newall’s spectacular turn, as Murrison, shifts the play’s focus from an economic crisis to an existential one.” THE EVENING STANDARD | Tom Teodorczuk Cornelius by J.B. Priestley “is the most commercially successful Off-Broadway production.” THE NEW YORK TIMES | Ben Brantley, May 31st 2013 | Preview “Nobody paid much attention when “Cornelius” opened in London in 1935, though the play was written by the popular novelist and dramatist J. B. Priestley and starred no less an actor than Ralph Richardson. But this portrait of capitalism, as one character calls it, a “game of snakes and ladders — without the ladders,” was perhaps too tough-minded for escapist Depression audiences and survived for a mere seven weeks before fading into the twilight of forgotten flops. “Flash forward to 2012, when the tiny but mighty Finborough Theater, known for pulling neglected plays from the shadows (like Emlyn Williams’s “Accolade,” a study in scandal and celebrity), gives “Cornelius” its first London revival. It’s a smash, hailed by critics as “painfully prescient” and “eerily relevant.” So eight decades after its inception, “Cornelius” has at last crossed the Atlantic for its American premiere. Now in previews at 59E59 Theaters, Sam Yates’s production for the Finborough has Alan Cox repeating his acclaimed performance in the title role. It is part of what has thus far been an exceptionally strong edition of the annual Brits Off Broadway festival. (Through June 30, 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, 212-279-4200, 59e59.org.)” CORNELIUS by J.B. Priestley, Finborough Theatre, London★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Michael Billington “A monumental leading role, which Alan Cox here fills to the brim, conveying the pipe-smoking decency of a man who will do anything to stop the firm going bust out of loyalty to his partner. At the same time, Cox suggests Cornelius is a poet and dreamer who sees through the futility of petty commerce and yearns for a life of adventure. It is a wonderfully two-toned performance well supported in Sam Yates’s lively production.” ★★★★ THE TIMES | Sam Marlowe “Sam Yates’s production is beautifully modulated and played to perfection, its atmosphere of deadening routine offset by the petty politics and personal quirks that characterise office life, now as then…Piercingly relevant, compassionate and delivered, like Cornelius’s bons mots, with great style.” ★★★★ THE DAILY TELEGRAPH | Dominic Cavendish “Cornelius, played in the original production by Ralph Richardson and here, in Sam Yates’s splendidly cast staging at the Finborough by Alan Cox, is one of two chief partners in an aluminium import business called Briggs and Murrison…Blessed with a philosophical air of carefree detachment and a theatrically declamatory manner, Cornelius – unruffled and raffish in Cox’s richly nuanced performance.” ★★★★ THE INDEPENDENT | Paul Taylor “Sam Yates’s engaging and well-judged revival, it emerges as an intriguing period piece that speaks to our times” ★★★★ MAIL ON SUNDAY | Robert Gore-Langton “Cox is a joy as the boss…in this beautifully staged and fascinating production.” ★★★★ THE SUNDAY TIMES | Maxie Szalwinska “Everyone in this play has their own modest yearnings, and the director, Sam Yates, takes them seriously.” ★★★★ THE EVENING STANDARD | Fiona Mountford “It’s rare that a “rediscovered theatrical gem” lives up to its pre-billing. But just this once, just maybe, the always intrepid Finborough won’t be breaking the Trade Descriptions Act, with this superb revival of an all but forgotten 1935 JB Priestley piece.” ★★★★ TIME OUT MAGAZINE (Critics’ Choice) | Tom Wicker “Sam Yates’s sensitive, well-judged production sees ‘Cornelius’ wearing its age lightly.” ★★★★ THE ARTS DESK | Matt Wolf “The most exciting reclamation from the English theatrical canon since the same venue produced Emlyn Williams’s startling and welcome Accolade…Funny and endearing…and the young director Sam Yates and his hugely accomplished cast do the occasion proud.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE | Michael Coveney “This attractively strange and surprising 1935 play by J B Priestley, acutely well cast and directed by Sam Yates, has the added chill relevance of being about economic collapse and unemployment in a recession.” MIXED MARRIAGE by St John Ervine, Finborough Theatre, London★★★★ THE GUARDIAN | Michael Billington “A fine production by Sam Yates that, in compressing the four acts into an uninterrupted 80 minutes, gives the play a headlong momentum and never strikes a false note… The most compelling play in London” ★★★★ THE FINANCIAL TIMES | Ian Shuttleworth “St John Ervine’s family drama of class, nationalism and bigotry proves him a Belfast predecessor of O’Casey.” ★★★★ WHAT’S ON STAGE “Sam Yates’ exciting production assures us that the play’s issues remain timeless.” ★★★★ LONDON THEATRE REVIEW | Blanche Marvin “The set, lights, costumes in the hands of this highly sensitive and passionate director blend into an amazing production.” THE STAGE | Nicholas Hamilton “Sam Yates’ direction the tension builds steadily to an impressive climax.” VARIETY | David Benedict “Yates keeps the pace up and runs the original four-act play in 80 minutes without a break. Yet he still finds time for repose, filling transitions with characters isolated in David Plater’s coolly atmospheric light.” PURGATORY by W.B. Yeats, C Venues, Edinburgh Festival★★★★★ THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE “The strength and effect of the simple story is maximised by the play’s short running time and makes the bitter end all the more shocking, as the audience is swept in the plain and simple horror of the tale.” ★★★★★ BROADWAY BABY “Young director Sam Yates and designer Rebecca Patterson have conjured up a stunning version… All in all, a flawless production.” MACBETH by William Shakespeare, C Venues, Edinburgh Festival★★★★★ BROADWAY BABY “Director Sam Yates has changed my expectations of a Fringe show. His interpretation of Macbeth raises the bar so high that other 5-Star shows suddenly look amateurish in comparison. The most spectacular production of a classic I have seen in Edinburgh – or even London – for years.” ★★★★ THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE “The actors acquit themselves well under inventive director Sam Yates. Yates has combined a shortened version of the text with striking and memorable images. In particular, the appearance of Banquo’s ghost at the banquet is vividly and terrifyingly realised.” ★★★★ THREE WEEKS “This fantastic production fuses intense acting with heavy-duty costumes, breathing life and soul into the original. A brave and successful production that really has something exciting and original to offer.” Observer Rising stars of 2014 – stage“The El Train was a brilliantly immersive experience, punctuated by gutsy jazz numbers, and with a Hell Hole bar serving cocktails. It sets an auspicious tone for 2014, when Yates, 30, will take on his most high-profile solo gig so far: directing Billy Liar at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. He also has a short film in the offing.” Read full article. GQ Magazine, Men of Next 25 Years“According to Michael Grandage, Director. Sam Yates, 30, is a young director on the rise. He trained with directors such as Trevor Nunn and Phyllida Lloyd, before I worked with him at the Donmar on plays starring Judi Dench and Jude Law. His production of Cornelius by JB Priestley was critically hailed on the London fringe, and when it transferred to off-Broadway, the New York Times endorsed him as a major rising talent.” (GQ Magazine, December 2013). First Person: Sam Yates on directing a Tom Stoppard play in real time via ZoomTHE ARTS DESK: “A little-known Stoppard play comes to new life during lockdown.” The Stage profile interviewTHE STAGE: “The award-winning director has brought David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross to the West End. He talks to Matt Trueman about being an actor’s director and why his eclectic body of work prizes the writer’s vision…” Screen International Stars of TomorrowFEATURE: “Despite carving out a successful career as a theatre director – including The El Train starring Ruth Wilson – Sam Yates says he always had “an instinct” to get into film…” (read more) |