Donkey''s Years - Reviews

Posted on 12 May 2006

Charles Spencer – The Daily Telegraph – 11 May 2006

One is left physically weak with grateful laughter. The show reaches that plateau of comic bliss when it becomes physically impossible to stop laughing. What a deliriously enjoyable evening this is: English comedy at its classic best.

Sams brilliantly choreographs the farcical action while also capturing the sheer ghastliness of middle-aged, middle-class men trying to relive their youth.

Edward Petherbridge’s delightfully rueful college porter.

The star of the show is undoubtedly David Haig.

Haig brilliantly captures the sweaty panic of the true farceur.

Samantha Bond is in superb form.

Mark Addy delivers a wonderful performance.

Neil Sean, Sky News – 10th May 2006

This is simply one reunion you will want to visit again - simply brilliant a superb master class in acting from a stellar cast of the highest order. Donkeys’ Years is the best tonic for laugh out loud reunion moments - sheer bliss from curtain up to final encore.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail – 10th May 2006

PERFECTION…THIS SHOW IS A REAL BELTER. LAUGHTER CUM LAUDE.

Michael Coveney, Whatsonstage.com – 10th May 2006

IN ALL, A TRIUMPHANT REVIVAL: DELICIOUS, DELIGHTFUL, DEFINITIVE.

Nicholas de Jongh – Evening Standard – 10th May 2006

BLISSFUL – I FOUND MYSELF OVERWHELMED WITH AMUSEMENT… Delicious

Michael Billington, The Guardian – 10th May 2006

Any play involving the sexual humiliation of a government minister is good for a laugh right now.

Jeremy Sams’ production is inspired. The audience is in a state of ECSTATIC HILARITY. David Haig’s performance is a classic of its kind. Samantha Bond is BRILLIANT.

It’s a play that gloriously makes a bonfire of the genre and produces the kind of PROPULSIVE MADNESS we last saw in Noises Off.

Claire Allfree – Metro – 11th May 2006

Supremely silly. Frayn brilliantly send up that odious sense of divine right that defines the English Establishment. Jeremy Sams’s fleet-footed production never misses a beat.

David Haig is particularly brilliant in an extremely funny comedy.


Benedict Nightingale – The Times – 11 May 2006

As bang up to date as a tabloid headline in 2006.