LAND OF OUR FATHERS at Trafalgar Studios
Chris Urch’s LAND OF OUR FATHERS debuted last autumn to critical acclaim, a sold out run and a slot on Time Out’s top ten plays of the year in London: http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/the-10-best-theatre-shows-of-2013.
See it from Wednesday, 3rd September at the Trafalgar Studios: http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/land-of-our-fathers/trafalgar-studios/.
Guardian (4*):
You would expect a play about six Welsh miners trapped underground to offer a display of quiet heroism. But the good thing about this remarkable first full-length work by Chris Urch is that, without denying the strength of the mining culture, it becomes an acute study of disgrace under pressure ... I was impressed by the play's imaginative reach ... [It] marks down Urch as a name to watch.
Time Out (5* and Critics Choice):
This is soul-searching, soul-scorching stuff ... Theatre503 has found a special talent in Chris Urch. ‘Land of Our Fathers’ is a blisteringly good debut; witty, smart, brilliantly textured and paced. The dialogue is packed with dirty humour ... but also punctuated with instinctive acts of kindness ... Paul Robinson allows the drama to swell gradually amid Signe Beckmann’s cramped and coal-drenched set. The space seems to shrink as the snap crackle humour of the early scenes builds into a screeching fear and rage ... The actors shine – but they’d be fools not to, given this gift of a script.
Stage:
Land of Our Fathers is a meaty debut ... Commissioned as part of 503Five 2012/13 Chris Urch has written an enormous play that is nonetheless a great fit for Theatre 503’s compact space ... Urch places masculine identity under the microscope in a piece that crackles with caustic humour as well as repressed violence ... Urch’s muscular drama surely answers the often posed question ‘Where are all the big plays?’ - a tantalising prospect anywhere, let alone on the fringe. But what is doubtless in Land of Our Fathers is the discovery of an exciting and strong new voice.