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Sandra Oh’s National Theatre Debut Divides Critics in Modernised Molière

Reviews say the production tests whether a star-led, hyper-contemporary take on The Misanthrope can use cancel-culture satire without losing dramatic focus.

Overview

  • Reviews published on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, praise Sandra Oh’s performance as Alice while giving the overall production a mixed reception.
  • Playwright Martin Crimp’s new gender-flipped update relocates Molière to the present day and explicitly addresses online reputation, cancel culture, and Big Tech surveillance.
  • Director Indu/Indhu Rubasingham’s staging and Robert Jones’s design draw notice for baroque visual callbacks, rhyming passages and meta-theatrical flourishes that some critics call overstuffed or meandering.
  • Critics single out strong supporting work from Paul Chahidi as John and Rina Fatania as a reputation manager, and note Tom Mison plays the fame-obsessed Stefan whose relationship with Alice drives much of the tension.
  • The run at the National Theatre links to Crimp’s earlier 1996 adaptation and shows how star casting and topical rewrites shape public and industry debates about updating classic plays.