Beyond Caring

Reviews / Votes

It's an elegy to an invisible class . . . This is character-driven theatre at its purest . . . It's a play about what unremitting poverty does to the soul, where poverty is not starvation, but life without dignity. * Spectator * The piece has drive and purpose and a social conscience * The Stage * Beyond Caring seethes. It brings your blood to boiling point. * Time Out * Totally compelling . . . This understated 90 minutes is quietly devastating . . . As time moves, slowly, the whole thing gradually becomes more and more heightened, emotionally and theatrically. The beauty of the piece . . . is that it eschews sob stories in favour of genuine tragedy. Just as these people keep themselves pretty much to themselves until the final, desperate moments, so the play always slyly shows and never tells. There are no big speeches. There is much awkward silence. People reveal themselves in small gestures . . . There are gusts of sadness; moments of pure desolation. But mostly there is work, with people struggling to survive: to the end of the shift, the end of the day, to the end of life itself. -- Lyn Gardner * Guardian * Alexander Zeldin's devised drama gives an unforgettable taste of life at the bottom of the employment pile. . . . it has a rare quality of gripping authenticity. * Daily Telegraph * this desolate, quietly intense devised drama gets under your skin and into your bones. . . . it's a ringing condemnation of an economic practice that puts profit before people and turns the basic business of earning a living into a barely sustainable, soul-destroying hell. Unforgettable. * The Times * Zeldin boldly sticks to unostentatious naturalism and draws the audience into this world. . . . this raw, unsentimental piece has immense cumulative power and quietly conveys just what it means to live with such a crippling lack of security. * Financial Times * very funny: understated but wincingly convincing in the manner of the best TV mockumentaries. . . . his writing has its own effective rhythm and, underneath it all, real compassion. * Independent * "Beyond Caring" is beyond praise. * International New York Times * A reminder that dramas about those living on or below the breadline in Britain are shamefully few and far between. * Sunday Times *