HomeJudgment Day Reviews

James Macdonald's production does more than justice to Judgment Day: it is elegant, gripping, masterly. And Joseph Millson's perfomance, as the stationmaster Thomas Hudetz, is phenomenal. There is a touch of the automaton about him, as if doing a job reliant on clockwork had affected his own inner workings. It is painful to behold his stressed, placatory smile. Something fundamental is wrong – even before he goes completely off the rails.

Kate Kellaway The Guardian Sept 2009

...Judgment Day is brought to life now in a creepily atmospheric production by James Macdonald at the Almeida, which powerfully communicates the play's thriller-like tension, haunted soul, and mordant humour. The protagonist is Hudetz, a dutiful, well-liked station master, finely played by a pained, upstanding Joseph Millson.

Paul Taylor The Independent Sept 2009

Joseph Millson plays Thomas Hudetz, a stationmaster with matinee hero good looks, based in a sleepy little town that might be located on either side of the Czech-German border. He is perfection personified in his bearing and professional performance...

...James Macdonald's production is atmospheric and there are allegorical messages to be mined but even though Joseph Millson is on top form, Judgement Day feels slight, much more the stuff of an easily forgotten short story than a novel or epic drama.

Peter Lathan British Theatre Guide Sept 2009

Leading a strong cast, Joseph Millson excels as the normally reliable Hudetz who goes seriously off the rails: at first polite and personable, his repressed guilt drives him to the edge of sanity, as he hopes for salvation from a ‘higher judgment’.

Music OMH Sept 2009

The strengths of the production are James Macdonald’s detailed direction and Miriam Buether’s technically ingenious design, elucidated by Neil Austin’s clever lighting. Only the excessive use of dry ice rankles.

The performances are robust — the best is that of Joseph Millson, hauntedly sensitive as Hudetz.

Henry Hitchings Evening Standard Sept 2009

In a large company there are superb performances in even minor roles, and Joseph Millson as the haunted stationmaster, Laura Donnelly as the increasingly neurotic Anna, and Sarah Woodward as a particularly malevolent gossip shine especially brightly.

Charles Spencer The Telegraph  Sept 2009

Director James Macdonald and his designer Miriam Buether give it a stunning fluidity that keeps changing perspective and location, and orchestrate the public and personal dimensions of the story that a stunning ensemble cast bring to astonishingly inhabited life.

Joseph Millson as the stationmaster, with Suzanne Burden as his spurned wife and Laura Donnelly as Anna (whose brief flirtation with him causes him to neglect his duties), carry the weight of the plot, but there are no less telling contributions from Sarah Woodward as a town gossip, Tom Georgeson as the innkeeper and Daniel Hawksford as the butcher fiancee of the young woman.

Mark Shenton for The Stage Sept 2009

Joseph Millson gives a strong and controlled performance as the doomed and self-deceiving stationmaster Hudetz. He injects an angry passion into the part and you feel repelled by his refusal to see that he is the guilty man.

Paul Callan Daily Express  Sept 2009

..Joseph Millson's Hudetz moves memorably from poker correctness to near-madness.

Michael Billington for The Guardian  Sept 2009