Conflicting views over play about clashes

Donmar warehouse

Despite the mixed reception to Unicorn, his play advocating the merits of a menage-a-trois as an alternative to the traditional couple, Mike Bartlett continues to push radical re-thinking in his latest play. This time he explores farming and the land. A couple played by Sam Troughton and Hattie Morahan consider extreme living off the grid. Many ecological and generational debates are explored, with a state of the nation motif running through it. It was too didactic for some critics but others liked the challenge. Most found it funny. If you want to read a thoroughly positive review, go to Sarah Crompton’s at WhatsOnStage. Her customary insight and meticulous detail make her one of our best reviewers. For the polar opposite point of view, try the damning review from Clive Davis in The Times.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton called it ‘a questing, knotty, philosophical piece, often circular and didactic but always utterly gripping as the arguments twist and turn. Juniper Blood does exactly what theatre has always done: offers a forum for debate, lining up the arguments with a clarity and courage that is rare.’ As for the set, ‘Designer Ultz has turned the Donmar into a patch of the countryside, with a living bank of grass surrounding a wooden platform.’ She concluded : ‘It has the feeling of being ancient myth and a report from the front line. It is utterly absorbing.’

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish reassured us: ‘Although Juniper Blood suffers from some trowelled-on exposition, Bartlett’s ability to dig deep into a rich subject with flair and wit is again to the fore.’ ‘Hattie Morahan and Sam Troughton lead the small cast, superbly, as a flaky middle-aged couple making a go of it as “permaculture” farmers in north-west Oxfordshire, forging a sustainable life in the sticks. Think Chekhov meets Clarkson…Bartlett’s asking if something more radical is needed.’

Aleks Sierz at The Arts Desk found it ‘more cerebral than emotional’. He decided ‘The main problem with the play is that the deadlock between its conflicting ideas is never really resolved in a satisfying way…Nevertheless, for all its imperfections, this is a compelling evening mainly because of James Macdonald’s directing and the acting of his cast. Macdonald’s production has the vibe of hyperrealism.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar had reservations: ‘The cast give excellent performances and the action is intriguing, the arguments holding us, but the story in itself seems contrived around the play’s ideas.’ However, ‘Despite its lecturing and trowel-load of ideas, it is compelling and ambitious, Chekhovian in glimmers. Bartlett masterfully weds levity through social satire with complexity and depth of subject matter.’

Holly O’Mahony popped up at Time Out with an equivocal review: the ‘production directed by Barlett’s regular collaborator James Macdonald is really very funny. But for a play that holds a mirror up to the gaping chasm between idealism and pragmatism, it has some disparities of its own. Though rivetingly performed all round, several characters become wildly different people between its three acts, while its form is slippery too.’

For Marianka Swain at LondonTheatre ‘There are keen observations here and sharply witty lines, but rather than developing the characters’ inner lives’.

Adam Bloodworth at CityAM took a similar line: ‘Bartlett’s writing, as it always has been, is often funny, though too much of the script feels didactic. The talk about tech solutions to climate problems, and idealism versus pragmatism, starts to feel a little too on-the-nose and gets a bit dreary.’

Mary Beer for LondonTheatre1 summarised: ‘As a showcase for a thoroughly brilliant cast, including younger faces to watch, Juniper Blood succeeds.  With some decent bits of theatrically and a winning set by ULTZ along with some zinging lines, there is pleasure to be found in taking in this play.  But it is not fresh or revelatory or frankly remotely important or urgent despite the themes that underpin it.

After a long analysis at BroadwayWorld, Cindy Marcolina summed up her review regally: ‘It generates enough of a conversation to get you going, but is it Bartlett at his best? We don’t think so.’

2 stars ⭑⭑

The Times’ Clive Davis had no time for it, calling it ‘a maddeningly self-indulgent play of ideas, tosses around one half-formed notion after another…you sit there, gazing at the mound of turf on the set, wondering who thought this script was worth inflicting on the audience at the Donmar’.

The Standard’s Nick Curtis was of the same mind: ‘the play itself feels thin and undercooked, the plot twists and emotional revelations unearned. Every character is underwritten’.

Sam Marlowe’s review in The Stage was also dismissive: ‘Static, effortful and irredeemably verbose, it pits its dislikeable characters against one another in a series of overworked debates…James Macdonald’s rather languid production…fails to inject Bartlett’s contrivances with much nuance or urgency.’

Juniper Blood can be seen at the Donmar Warehouse until 4 October 2025. Click here to buy tickets directly from the theatre  

Critics’ average rating 3.0⭑

If you’ve seen Juniper Blood at the Donmar, please add your review and rating below