“An absolute wonder. It captures perfectly the emotional dilapidations of a dying relationship”

Together

Together, BBC2

“There will be some for whom its dark comedy does not work at all. But if you are not put off – if you like it, or if you lean in, or perhaps if you lean to the side and round the unexpected presentation to what is behind – Together is an absolute wonder. It captures perfectly the emotional dilapidations of a dying relationship.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Writer Dennis Kelly’s achievement is remarkable: a deft weaving of pain and silliness and hatred and truth that still somehow made a case for love. Its rush through time and trauma was also a reminder of how quick we are to forget; watching in a world more open, it drew from me all the raw anger I had accidentally shoved to the side.”
Sarah Carson, The i

“Directed by Stephen Daldry, backed by theatre producer Sonia Friedman, and a two-hander in which we never learned their names – this was a play for TV, from the dialogue to the staging. Perhaps it was that remove which meant that I admired Together but didn’t love it. In fact, for the first 20 minutes, I hated it. It was ambitious and accomplished but never lost its staginess.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Both of them were riven with middle-class guilt that became tiresome towards the end of the 90 minutes. But the main theme of the play, about the amplified emotions of lockdown, was deeply moving and wonderfully performed. Horgan’s bemused grief, as she described watching her mother die in a hospital bed via a videocall, was shattering.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“While Together was spiky, polemical, deliciously written and terrifically acted, my small and probably pernickety niggle is that a couple of the speeches dragged on a bit. At 90 minutes the drama felt too long. This was like sitting in the kitchen of the most toxic couple you know while they knocked lumps out of each other, each trying to persuade you that they were the wronged party. It was a heightened, intensified version of what will have been happening in pressure-cooker households over the past year and it was brutal.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

Topics