A good story and overall well acted.
However - Very disappointing stage scenery (or lack of it!) The grand house of Manderlay represented by a few ornate chairs! When characters in the play go for a walk they walked around the stage and came back to where they were and we had to imagine they had gone somewhere!
On the right-hand side of the stage (as seen from the audience) stage lights were visible sticking out from one of the arches! I think that nowadays audiences are used to more and expect more from theatrical productions.
I also thought that Nigel Havers underplayed his part, almost as if his heart wasn't in what he was doing.
Came across as a cheap production which is strange considering the name of Nigel Havers will be drawing full houses.
William Harrison
Portswood, Southampton

We had booked our seats last October and were really looking forward to seeing Nigel Havers as the leading man. What a disappointment - my favourite classic story set in a Cornish mansion in 1926; we saw only a wooden floor, a few chairs as the only props and a video screen showing not the beautiful Cornish cove of the book but what looked like Southsea beach! Nigel Havers spoke his parts so quickly - it was so disappointing. Can't believe we paid £50. Awful.
Margaret Tait
Havant, Hampshire

I was very disappointed with this performance. For a lot of it I didn't really understand what was going on. It seemed disjointed, and the timescale wasn't adequately conveyed. When one character mentioned they had been married for three months (during which she had not changed her clothes) everyone seemed rather surprised. Whoever cast the 'star', Nigel Havers, was seriously misguided. His acting was wooden and very offputting. The other cast members, however, were very professional.
Anthony
Southampton

I didn't mind the lack of 'props' as do some of the other people who have commented. I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was that for nearly the whole first half, I really couldn't hear the actresses at all and the actors didn't fare much better. It seemed that their voices were just lost in that cavernous stage. Quite a disappointment I must say.
Helen Herron
Chichester

As the film has been my wife’s favourite for years, I bought the tickets for a Christmas present. After the good reviews and hearing about packed houses, we were really looking forward to seeing the play. What a disappointment. The acting was average, and the stage so poor it’s hard to know where to start with criticism. It was so bad the people in the seats next to us left at the interval. Whilst I welcome the Mayflower putting on plays, I hope in future they are better than this.
Terry Ashmore
Hythe

Nigel Havers was wonderful, superbly cast and didn't falter once. The lack of props did not bother me at all, it merely meant that we were able to use our imagination and concentrate on the wonderful performances of the cast. Well done!
Joy Pearce

I thought that the play was a huge success. Although as other comments have mentioned the stage was a bit bare, but I think this was forgiven as anyone who has read the book must realise that the film is set in many different locations. Some exception must be made for the fact that the locations at which it is set are very different and would have been very hard to change the scenery in between scenes of the very fast paced play. Nigel Havers was good, but in trying to portray the part of a man troubled by the death of his wife lost the fierce intensity of the much loved book version portrayal of Maxim De Winter.
Grace
Southampton