Minority Report at the Lyric Hammersmith – review round-up

Minority Report – a disappointing dystopian drama

David Haig is best known as an Olivier-award-winning actor of stage and screen, but he has penned plays before: 1997’s My Boy Jack, 2000’s The Good Samaritan and 2014’s Pressure. He has never adapted a sci-fi story for theatre, though. Does he do a good job?

No, not according to the critics. Everyone agrees that Haig’s version deals with interesting ideas around artificial intelligence and individual privacy, but struggles to spin them into something stimulating. His adaptation is “sloppy” for Andrzej Lukowski (Time Out), “sketchy” for Dominic Cavendish (Telegraph, ★★★) and “undermined by clichéd and slapdash plotting” for Nick Curtis (Evening Standard, ★★★).

“Haig’s script has an undercooked plot filled with anaemic twists, while both the action and pace need finessing,” writes Arifa Akbar (Guardian, ★★). “None of it snags emotionally or contains enough dramatic impact.” It is “a zombie hybrid” of a piece.

“The narrative swings between exposition and plot; the characters are either running across the stage or explaining the technology” and “great gobbets of ethical discussion never quite weave themselves into the action”, adds Sarah Crompton (WhatsOnStage, ★★★). It “never really digs below its sharp, hi-tech surface”.

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Minority Report – a striking sci-fi staging

Max Webster has form when it comes to staging seemingly unstageable stories: his acclaimed production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi won five Olivier awards in 2022. Does he deliver something similarly stunning here?

Some think so, praising Jon Bausor’s set, Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting, Tal Rosner’s video and Nicola T Chang’s sound. Their work “transforms a tiny stage into a richly realised vision of the near future”, writes Crompton. And Webster’s staging plays out on it “like a dizzying cat-and-mouse chase”, describes Anya Ryan (The Stage, ★★★).

Webster does “achieve mission impossible in generating suspenseful jeopardy, with pulsing lighting, bustling choreography, a throbbing soundscape and a shifting metallic, grid-like set conjuring futuristic exteriors and interiors”, writes Cavendish. Agreed, adds Sarah Hemming (Financial Times, ★★★). It is “fun, sharp and visually impressive”.

Only a few reviewers disagree. For Curtis the staging is “inventive but inevitably a bit naff”, and for Clive Davis (The Times, ★★★) it is “a doomed attempt to generate big-screen thrills” on stage. For Lukowski, meanwhile, it is all a bit superfluous. “Much of the show’s terse, 90-minute running time is taken up with stuff like characters breaking into a building through a high window, or a cab chase, or a character with vertigo crossing over a tiny aerial walkway,” he describes. “None of it really adds to the story, though.”

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Minority Report – clunky characterisation

In the 2002 film adaptation of The Minority Report, the central character, John Anderton, is memorably portrayed by Tom Cruise. Here, the role has been regendered and is played by Liverpudlian actor Jodie McNee.

The critics are unanimously impressed by her performance. She is “hypnotically intense” according to Davis, “has drive and determination to spare” according to Matt Wolf (LondonTheatre, ★★) and is a “defiantly chilly protagonist” according to Curtis.

There is praise, too, for Tanvi Virmani, who plays Julia’s artificially intelligent assistant. For Lukowski she is “good fun”, for Crompton she “glitches convincingly”, and for Wolf she “morphs impressively from a visual projection to actual person and back again”.

Generally, though, the reviewers think McNee and Virmani impress in spite of the writing. Both they and their supporting cast are lumbered with characters who are “very slenderly drawn” with a “lack of interiority”, writes Hemming.

Minority Report – the verdict

The critics have not been kind to this theatrical version of Dick’s 1956 novella. All the reviewers admire the performances of McNee and Virmani, and the majority like the futuristic staging from director Webster and his design team. The problem is Haig’s adaptation, which clunkily compromises its compelling themes.

Stars are thin on the ground for this sci-fi show: most critics award either two or three.