Keira Knightley's West End reviews

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/18/09 at 4:36pm

Keira Knightley said she expected to be "burned alive" by the critics when she embarked on her first West End performance, as the captivating Jennifer in a modern translation of Moliere's The Misanthrope. So the gentle singeing, when it finally arrived this morning, must have come as a relief. "She catches the waywardness [of her character]," says Benedict Nightingale in the Times, "but not the authority to explain how she can dominate a gathering by more than beauty." And "even if she doesn't always know what to do with her hands," in Michael Billington's opinion, "she gives a perfectly creditable performance." Most West End first-timers could be more than satisfied with that.

In the Telegraph and Independent, the reviews start to look like actual praise. "In the second half," says Charles Spencer in the former, "in which she bitchily insults a false friend and has a real humdinger of a row with the jealous Alceste, she reveals both power and poignancy." While Paul Taylor in the latter is positively smitten. "It's not just that she cuts a stunningly beautiful figure," he swoons. "It's that she has real stage presence and knows how to use it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/dec/18/keira-knightley-the-misanthrope
BBC Interview with Keira