The Hunger Games: On Stage – review round-up

The Hunger Games: On Stage – an underwhelming adaptation

Set in an unequal future civilisation divided into districts and overseen by the authoritarian Snow, The Hunger Games follows Katniss as she battles through a gladiatorial contest in which 24 ‘tributes’ fight to the death in an enormous arena for entertainment. Does McPherson – the acclaimed playwright behind The Weir, Girl from the North Country and The Brightening Air – successfully transpose this story on to the stage?

Most critics think not. The original novels are “great” and the films “even better”, but this adaptation is “depressingly bad”, writes Claire Allfree (Telegraph, ★★). It struggles to “reimagine and revitalise its source material”, relies on a “heavily emotive-by-numbers script” and “fails properly to characterise the tributes”. It is, she adds, “thuddingly perfunctory”.

“The best adaptations often honour the spirit of the original while finding a voice natural to the new medium”, but this one “never quite achieves that unique, independent dramatic life”, agrees Sarah Hemming (Financial Times, ★★). “The play hits the same beats as the novel, but with less shading and subtlety, and often feels rushed.” There is, she adds, “little emotional impact”.

Other critics concur. This adaptation “labours under its own exposition” according to Alex Wood (WhatsOnStage, ★★★), does not have characters that “come to life” according to Arifa Akbar (Guardian, ★★★), and “plods through the tale” according to Clive Davis (Times, ★★). It is “a damp squib”, writes Marianka Swain (London Theatre, ★★). “The odds are not in its favour.”

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The Hunger Games: On Stage – spectacular or slow?

The Hunger Games features many memorable moments: Katniss volunteering to replace her sister as a tribute, Katniss parading through city streets in a flaming chariot, Katniss desperately evading monsters, fire and fellow competitors in the arena. Do director Dunster, best known for his productions of Hangmen and 2:22 – A Ghost Story, and designer Buether, who delivered the set for the Stranger Things stage show, manage to realise these spectacles successfully?

Some critics think so. They do a “pretty damn good job” of a “tricky” proposition, “deploying aerial work, pyro, video screens, some tightly drilled choreography, the odd song and a highly mobile, rapidly changing set to create a sequence that’s coherent and gripping”, writes Andrzej Lukowski (TimeOut, ★★★), while Akbar admires the show’s “Super Bowl optics”, and Holly O’Mahony (The Stage, ★★★★) reckons there is “plenty here to impress fans of the franchise”.

Others, though, are underwhelmed. The show is “a hodgepodge of ideas” that “sorely lacks wow live spectacle”, writes Swain, while Davis deems “this dystopia could surely do with a little more pizzazz” and Wood wishes “the show would push its own visual identity a little further”. Some bits are effective, but some are not, adds Nick Curtis (Standard, ★★★). The scene in which Katniss rides a “flamethrowing chariot across the sky teeters towards absurdity”.

Several critics complain that the show could incorporate more audience interaction. “An arena like this should be perfectly suited to getting the crowd cheering on their favourites,” writes Alice Saville (Independent, ★★★). “But although this production names each seating bank after one of the warring districts, the interactivity stops there” and the audience is “never truly invested”.

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The Hunger Games: On Stage – cracking Carragher, miserable Malkovich 

Thirteen years ago, the role of Katniss launched the career of Jennifer Lawrence. Here, it is taken on by newcomer Carragher, daughter of former footballer and pundit Jamie Carragher.

Carragher largely impresses the press. She is “apprehensive, conflicted yet resolute” for Patrick Marmion (Mail, ★★★), “fresh-faced” and “physical” for Akbar, “fierce and impressively athletic” for Saville, and “an energetic central presence” according to Davis. “She’s climbing lighting rigs, vaulting on to platforms, darting through clouds of smoke”, describes Wood. “It’s a test of stamina as much as acting, and she comes through it with real conviction.”

Not everyone agrees, though. Carragher is certainly up to the physical demands of playing Katniss”, but “she’s somewhat light on the ol’ charisma and she talks in a breathy Marilyn Monroe-style accent that is odd, bordering on distracting”, writes Lukowski, while Swain reckons she is “a whiny, emotional over-sharer” without the requisite “grit, stoicism and inscrutability”.

Everyone agrees that the addition of Malkovich’s pre-recorded performance via vast video screens is awful, though. He delivers the lines with “palpable disinterest” and “zero menace” according to Swain and “as if he has a gun trained on him” according to Curtis. The idea is “unnecessary” for Wood, “weird” for Lukowski, and “completely underwhelming” for Saville.

The Hunger Games: On Stage – the verdict

There has been a huge amount of hype around this theatrical adaptation of The Hunger Games, but it leaves most critics thoroughly underwhelmed. There is plenty of praise from the press for star Mia Carragher and some reviewers are impressed by the Matthew Dunster and Miriam Buether’s staging, but most are disappointed by both script and spectacle.

Holly O’Mahony gives the show four stars in The Stage, but everyone else opts to award two or three stars, suggesting that The Hunger Games may leave audiences undernourished.