"...What is astonishing about The Birthday Party, now receiving a cracking revival in the West End, is that almost 50 years on, it has lost none of its power to shock, disconcert and above all entertain... Everything we understand by the word Pinteresque - except perhaps the haunting stage poetry that so enriches his mid-period - is confidently in place. Lindsay Posner's superb production captures all the familiar unease, the disconcerting pauses that sometimes grow into a deafening silence... A production without a weak link... This party, in short, is a cause for real celebration." The Daily Telegraph

"Passe, Pinter. Almost 47 years after The Birthday Party was first performed, it now feels dated. This revival in the West End is a historical curiosity, well acted but so-whattish. The one reason for seeing it is the performance of Henry Goodman, who plays the visiting villian Goldberg. Mr Goodman is tops, one of those actors whose mere arrival on the stage moves the show up a couple of gears..." The Daily Mail

"...Judging the level of uncertainty the audience can take is a major problem for any director of The Birthday Party, and for the most part, Lindsay Posner's production handles the equations with intelligence and elegance. But there are one or two places where he throws out a little too much information... If [Lindsay Posner] doesn't quite get the infectious unease of the very best Pinter, he is alert to Pinter's variety and shadings in a way that makes for a thoroughly enjoyable production." The Independent

"...One of the joys of this revival is watching Eileen Atkins and Henry Goodman sinking their teeth into gratifying parts without destroying the balance of the whole. Atkins is extraordinary as Meg, the smothering landlady who presides over these dingy seaside digs... It's a mesmerising performance superbly matched by Goodman's Goldberg. Goodman exudes false, cuff-shooting bonhomie but underneath his paeans to a sentimentalised Jewish past there is always a sense of danger... A probing, intelligent and very well-acted version of a brilliant play..." The Guardian