
Harold and Maude
4.5 (2) · Contemporary
Sheila Hancock will star as Maude, and Thom Southerland returns to direct.
Overview
Harold and Maude is an idiosyncratic fable told though the eyes of the most unlikely pairing: a compulsive, self-destructive young man who attends funerals for entertainment and a devil-may-care, septuagenarian bohemian.
Through Colin Higgin’s tale, we experience a way of seeing the world that looks directly into darkness, stresses our needs humour, the freedom to create and kindness while concluding that cynicism and despair are dead ends. Equal parts dark comedy and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with ones that separate people by class, gender and age.
Critic reviews
The British premiere of the stage version of the film struggles to find the right tone in which to sell us on these whimsical characters.
Hancock brings a playful effervescence to her role.
...unsettlingly chucklesome.
There’s witty live music and convincing performances by Sheila Hancock and Bill Milner but this staging of the cult movie feels coy and dated.
Clunky but tender adaptation of the classic film.
Sheila Hancock brings a poignancy to the role and her comic timing is often masterful.