Shawshank Redemption - theatre review, Wyndham's Theatre
Three stars for the stage version of Frank Darabont's much loved movie classic which stars The Wire's Reg E Cathey and Kevin Anderson as the wrongly imprisoned Andy Dufresne
14 September 2009
Rating: 3/5
Frank Darabont’s 1994 classic about wrongfully imprisoned Andy Dufresne has topped best-loved film lists for a decade and with screen-to-stage transfers proving a no-brainer for the West End’s investors, this should be a coup.
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If you’ve not seen the film, you’ll love this story. If you have, you’ll enjoy it, but you’d still be better off flogging the ticket price on the DVD and a takeaway. While not quite Shawshank-by-numbers, it doesn’t gain much in the flesh, although some audience members might disagree: there were lively whoops during an early nude scene.
It’s also mesmerisingly like criminal Botox: over 20 years no-one seems to age, except Andy (Kevin Anderson) who wears glasses, and prison fixer Red (The Wire’s Reg E Cathey, terrific) whose knees appear to creak a bit in the snow.
And some of Shawshank’s best moments get an awful drubbing. The prison’s terrifying predatory rapists, the Sisters, become generic heavies with an odd obsession with chess. The ending, and its assorted comeuppances, arguably one of the greatest unravellings in cinematic history, is dispatched in a terse few minutes that amount to “And they all lived happily ever after except for him, him and him”.
Happily, nothing messes with the redemption itself, and Shawshank’s feel-good factor is untouchable. “Hope is a good thing,” says Red, and half the audience gets weepy. But the film is also a good thing, and ultimately more enjoyable than this so-so play.
Shawshank Redemption , to 14 February, Wyndham's Theatre, Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0DA, 0870 950 0925
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