★★★★
EVENING STANDARD, TIME OUT, THE STAGE, WHATSONSTAGE,
ARTSDESK, BROADWAY WORLD
“It is perfect. Beautifully directed by Derek Bond. Deep, rich and moving.”
MATT WOLF
“A big-hearted play with buried magic at its core. Derek Bond’s sensitive direction captures the unusual mix of earthy truth and lightness in Cooper’s writing. A romantic comedy that’s genuinely funny but also unexpectedly powerful.”
EVENING STANDARD
“Derek Bond’s messy, playful production adds some clever touches: the pair change the lighting with a clicker and use mic stands as fence posts and lecterns. It’s a self conscious production, perfectly underscoring the self consciousness of adolescence. The lightness of touch and splashes of humour quietly, charmingly, deftly coalesce into heartrending and heartwarming beauty.”
THE STAGE
“The Orange Tree hits gold with the extremely loveable Jess and Joe Forever. Very wise, very funny – and utterly authentic. The two actors are consistently mesmerising.”
TIME OUT
“This is a play that matures alongside its characters and the more they appreciate the intricacies of life, the bits that don’t fit tidy definitions or neat narratives, the more we do too. It’s a daring move that pays dividends with a ‘hell yeah’ ending; the sort that sets tear ducts going and sends stomachs soaring.
You’ll want to punch the air.”
WHATSONSTAGE
“In Derek Bond’s very funny and quietly intense production, the initial laughs disguise the growing emotional tension of the piece, and as dark shadows begin to fall over the story its ability to move us just grows and grows. The effect is quirky, funny, moving and theatrically thrilling – a small play that packs a great emotional punch.”
ARTSDESK
“Well worth catching for its touching portrait of the awkward uncertainties of adolescence and the human potential for transformation. Cooper skilfully offers a dramatic revelation that we realise was implicit from the start.Nicola Coughlan as the supposedly sophisticated Jess and Rhys Isaac-Jones as the shape-shifting Joe catch exactly the waywardness of a friendship that hovers on the edge of love.”
GUARDIAN
“Gorgeous details in Cooper’s writing, and the actors’ extraordinary ability to mimic ageing from 9 to 15, ensure that this production is vivid and touching. With finesse but without fuss, they play our heroes playing the characters around them. Derek Bond’s production controls the mood cannily as we skip from one year to another.”
TIMES