Fantastic reviews of Zoë's 'near flawless' Stevie Smith

3 May 2014 22:35

Stevie opened last night at Chichester's Minerva Theatre to stunning reviews.  Below are some of the highlights.

'The marvellous Zoe Wanamaker plays Stevie, whose poetry made her a celebrity of post- war Britain.  Her performance is near flawless as the challenging Stevie Smith, musing through her life in conversations with her aunt, several gentlemen associates, but mostly the audience at the Minerva Theatre.'
- Ian Murray, Daily Echo

'Zoë Wanamaker gives an increasingly-winning performance as the poet nervously flutters around the house she shares with her "lion" aunt, seamlessly slipping into verse which has now sadly lapsed into obscurity.

Where Hugh Whitemore's play scores is in showing us how the poetry emanates from Stevie, and this is where Wanamaker is at her strongest: the poetry isn't an addition to Smith's life; it is her life.'
- Phil Hewitt, Chichester Observer

'Words invigorated her [Stevie Smith] as they invigorate this tribute play.  Mischievous self-awareness makes her real: Wanamaker, who dwells all evening with fierce concentration within this private personality, gives precise and useful weight both to the heroine's summonses to death and to lines like "Critics get awfully cross when I write cat poems. They seem to think it's letting the side down".  Bullseye! The literati came to love her, and she played up when she wanted. But she never joined their club.'
- Libby Purves, theatrecat.com

'Wanamaker's smoky voiced Smith is cantankerous, independent, depressive, suicidal, lonely and, scarred by her father's desertion, unable to commit to a man.

It is a tour de force from the actor, who restlessly prowls the set, smoking, and reliving the poet's life with all its minutiae.'
- Anne Cox, Stage Review

'To play such a complex and unconventional woman I don’t think you could do better than Zoë Wanamaker and she more than ably fills Stevie’s shoes, that immediately recognisable purr revelling in the poetry and in the eccentricities of the character.'
- Matt Merritt, Sitting in the Cheap Seats

'Driving the work [...] is Zoe Wanamaker's astonishing Stevie.  On stage almost throughout, the role is massive both in terms of her character's emotional complexities (Smith suffered from depression) as well as the sheer volume of text.  Wanamaker is sublime, capturing the fragility of Smith's youth, blighted by TB and from there charts her life with perception.'
- Jonathan Baz, jonathanbaz.com

Tickets for Stevie, which runs until 24 May, are currently available.

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