The audience reviews for Bingo are in! Read your fellow audience members’ thoughts on the production below, and email us your review at reviews@youngvic.org.
The play is very simply, but very engagingly produced. Set design is minimalist, which allows focus on the performance & clever in the final scene when the snow is shown to fall.
The thrust stage is elegantly used to allow the cast to enter & exit through the audience aisles & this brings the performance out into us as we watch.
Individual performances were terrific & we felt a real camaradie between the players, with Patrick Stewart being very generous in his inclusivity, not over egging his headline status at all – but joining with his fellows.
The theatre itself was a joy! What a great ambience you have created – & how wonderful to sit in comfort, have a brilliant view & have ones own space – fantastic!! As was the provision of a jug of tap water at the bar during the interval – very thoughtful, thank you!
—Stephen & Claire
It would be so easy to pick out Patrick Stewart but in truth it was a brilliant cast; he happened to be one of them! Superbly acted; fascinating scene design. Strange play!
—Marion McCrindle
I saw the original production at the Royal Court. I remember feeling detached and unmoved, disappointed. I am so pleased that I revisited the play; this production had the opposite effect. Patrick Stewart , even conveying the stillness of old age, was animated and movingly anguished. Catherine Cusack made me feel I might understand the family of a great writer through her intelligent portrayal of the domestic Judith. Richard McCabe provided well judged amusement as kindred ,yet contrasting, spirit Jonson.
Those for whom Shakespeare is a life-long fascination will find their knowledge and appreciation enhanced by this production.
I would like to extend my thanks to all involved.
—Tony Couldrey
Brilliant, enthralling, captivating, thought-provoking, unmissable.
—Mary Musker
Watched BINGO by Edward Bond with my friend at the Young Vic last night! Truly brilliant! It revived my thirst for more theatre… “Women with shopping bags stepping over puddles of blood”. A tragic and contradicting retiring Shakespeare portrayed superbly by Sir Patrick Stewart. A must watch!
—Barry Crisp
Although the reviews posted on the website were all 4 star, I did read a couple of reviews that were less enthustiastic, particularly one by a reviewer I’d normally trust who clearly didn’t enjoy Mr. Bond’s play. Well I did enjoy it, and I thought the production was excellent and the acting throughout the cast, not just the mighty Mr. Stewart, was of a very high order indeed.
—Chris Dearmun
Kathy Doherty is a senior keeper at Whipsnade Zoo. Below is a snippet of her review in The Guardian on Kafka’s Monkey from the 2009 run. Click here to read the 
