Quiz

★★★★★

A tour de force, a brilliant blend of court case and quiz show which asks profound questions about the way the values of light entertainment have distorted our institutions. Daniel Evans' fluent, light-handed direction keeps things moving beautifully. And once Gavin Spokes' appealingly bumbling Major finds himself hesitating over questions posed by Chris Tarrant, his intonations and mannerisms perfectly impersonated by Keir Charles, the drama grips like Greek tragedy.

WhatsOnStage

★★★★ 

The second half is Graham at his best as he contrasts the quiz show format with the subsequent court case against Ingram, featuring a stellar performance by Sarah Woodward as his QC. Quiz bristles with detail, not to mention game show razzmatazz, aided by a flash set by Robert Jones complete with a neon cube inside a moving circular walkway.

Times

★★★★ 

With Quiz, his typically thorough and thoroughly entertaining treatment of the “coughing Major” controversy that beset ITV’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire? in 2001, Graham, theatre’s golden boy, has hit the jack-pot again. Daniel Evans, finishing his box-office bonanza of a first year at Chichester with a flourish, directs with the certain inside knowledge that he has a winner on his hands. Phone a friend and go.

Daily Telegraph

★★★★ 

Full of kaleidoscopic razzmatazz Daniel Evans’s production matches exactly the play’s restless vivacity, Robert Jones’s design is cleverly built around a revolving, illuminated cube and most of the 12-strong cast play multiple roles.

Guardian

★★★★ 

Graham and director Daniel Evans expertly ratchet up the tension – and the possible doubts advanced by defence attorney Sonia Woodley QC (a persuasive and determined Sarah Woodward) – on a story whose outcome we already know. Designer Robert Jones’ set consists of a rotating cube of strip lights for the main TV studio that also seamlessly doubles up as the courtroom.

Gavin Spokes offers an utterly inhabited portrait of Ingram, wearing his strange unease with a plausible sense of ambiguity, while Stephanie Street is simultaneously sympathetic and determined as his wife Diana.

The Stage

★★★★ 

Quiz exposes the wonderfully shallow cardboard pedigree of the genre, and Keir Charles’ pitch-perfect portrayal of all the great game show hosts – not least Millionaire’s Chris Tarrant – sets the tone

i Newspaper

★★★★ 

James Graham has done more to bring matters of civic engagement into popular theatre than any writer in a generation.

Financial Times

★★★★ 

Graham asks serious questions in the most inventive ways

Sunday Times

★★★★ 

James Graham has two smashes already running in London. In West Sussex he now has another hit on his hands with this sparkling new play. It’s a major coughing hit!

Mail on Sunday

★★★★ 

James Graham, possibly the finest playwright of his generation, takes opposing views surrounding the saga and turns it into a gripping cautionary tale. Ingeniously constructed. Daniel Evans’s nimble production is brash, bold and thought-provoking.

Metro

A spinning-on-its-heels play that confirms Daniel Evans’s sure touch as director and runner of a theatre. This is another example of how Evans’s Chichester is flourishing – I’d be surprised if Quiz did not move smartly to the West End.

Observer

★★★★ 

James Graham’s new play is a sharp-edged, finally rather poignant comedy. Characteristically intelligent and twistily playful, set on a hellishly shiny neon-edged TV-studio floor, the play explores the crossover between the serious and logical worlds of law and of democracy and the shimmer , manipulation and deception of light entertainment.

Libby Purves for Theatrecat

Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2017 summer season is signing off with an impressive final flourish, a sparky, snappy production delivered with panache and imagination.

Director Daniel Evans gives the whole piece pace and fizz; Gavin Spokes and Stephanie Street are excellent. But the show stealer is Keir Charles as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host Chris Tarrant. It’s amusing, slick, intriguing and very, very provocative. In other words, everything you’d want new writing to be.

Chichester Observer