DADDY by Jeremy O'Harris in London - Reviews

A disclaimer: if you have a ticket for Daddy, I’d recommend closing this review now. Plenty has already been written about the play by buzzy playwright Jeremy O Harris. But Daddy is a masterpiece that doesn’t so much pull the rug from under you as yank it, then stick around to laugh at you lying on the floor, dazed and bewildered. Trust me: this is a show enhanced by a lack of expectations.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/daddy-review-almeida-jeremy-o-harris-b2053046.html

Yet underneath all the glitzy, glamorous trappings, Daddy is a fairly simple story of a confused young man trying to work out the psycho dramas of his upbringing. It's brightly clever rather than illuminating. It subtitles itself a melodrama. Yet the point about melodramas – as the programme essay points out – is that they have a direct line to emotional truth. Daddy feels as if it has inverted commas around its pain.
https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/daddy-a-melodrama-at-the-almeida-review_56276.html

The play’s arch self-awareness is one of its strengths, but at the end it feels like Harris is so desperate to be sure nobody has missed what he’s talking about that he brings ‘“Daddy”’ to a grinding halt when it might have worked better speeding mischievously into the sunset on a more ambiguous note. Still, a bit of heavy-handedness in a debut play can be forgiven when there’s so much invention elsewhere – ‘“Daddy”’ may not be perfect, but it is remarkable.
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/daddy-review

Updated On: 4/7/22 at 03:37 PM

Sounds just as obvious and unfinished as Slave Play was.

I like Jeremy’s work a great deal but they do feel like the work of a young playwright. They are overstuffed with themes that aren’t properly explored. More superficial and provocative. Which I enjoyed. I feel these reviews will stunt his growth as a playwright. 
 

Also I wonder how the work would fare in less showy productions. No mirrors, no pools, no choirs, no puppets. For a newbie playwright he is very fortunate to have all the money thrown at his shows. Most young playwrights start out doing their work for free mostly as staged readings. 
 

Jeremy is blessed to have all the bells and whistles of theatre to support his words. It makes a difference.