The Cryptogram

This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows

Play Closed 25 November 2006

Donmar Warehouse Earlham Street, London

A new production of David Mamet's play The Cryptogram directed by Josie Rourke.

John cannot sleep. He's afraid to go to sleep. He doesn't understand what is happening or why his father hasn't returned home. David Mamet's unsettling, elliptical play charts the breakdown of a family, pinpointing the moment when childhood suddenly vanishes.

Cast features Kim Cattrall and Douglas Henshall with Joe Ashman, Adam J Brown or Oliver Coopersmith. (Casting subject to change).

"This is undoubtedly a major work from one of America's greatest living dramatists" The Daily Telegraph

"Josie Rourke's production creates an atmosphere of edginess, doubt, doom and gloom. Kim Cattrall puts in a fine performance as the elegant 1950s housewife who grows increasingly frantic and directs her wounded rage at her son. This play also feels discernibly, tantalisingly like disguised personal reminiscence. However, the directing misses hints of satiric humour and, too often, the dialogue is mannered and monotonous in pitch, rhythm and volume." The Independent on Sunday

"Josie Rourke's fine revival... an immaculate production" The Guardian

"The set of Josie Rourke's stylish revival at the Donmar convey's in visual shorthand the play's efforts to combine a semi-naturalistic surface with dreaamlike depths... The play itself seems over-packed and too well suited to academic explication. It runs for 65 minutes and feels longer." The Sunday Telegraph