Bagdad Café OLD Vic Emma Rice

I'd decided against this one (because I didn't like Wise Children), but I had a meeting nearby yesterday, and was lured in by the £10 tickets.

From what I remember, the strength of the film was the emotional depth of the unlikely friendship between two strong women characters, and the bleak setting being a metaphor for their loneliness and abandonment. But here there was not much dialogue between the women, and what there was was banal, so it was hard to believe that a deep connection develops.

There was some great singing (especially Sal), but the same two songs were repeated several times as though they had a profound message, but they weren't strong enough songs to drive the plot or give us any insights into the characters beyond Brenda being lonely and Sal being a neglectful husband.

There were some awful caricatures, including the Russian woman rushing past shouting "glasnost, perestroika" - embarrassing stereotype or lazy way of signposting that the outside world was in the late 80s? I'd be interested to know what others made of her.

I know a lot of people love Emma Rice, so there's clearly something I just don't understand about her work. I was looking for something more complex and truthful behind the jokes and spectacle, but it didn't engage me at all. I wondered if others are excited by the eclectic plundering from film, musicals, panto, etc - whereas for me that made it a bewildering mish mash. She's strong on mise en scene, but I suppose I'm more interested in dialogue and characters than visuals, so maybe that's my problem. At least I won't need to shell out on tickets for Wuthering Heights next year.

I caught this on Saturday and found it dull and charmless.It worked hard to be endearing but instead it all felt hollow. Emotional connections between characters were non-existent until one moment later in the show when everyone was quietly enjoying themselves in the German woman's room. But that also proved to be the only genuine moment in the show. The show played more like an idea for a musical version of "Bagdad Cafe" rather than actually being one. And why are we being asked to find insipid limp choreography charming or acceptable in a professional environment. The show failed to deliver on any level and the lack of laughs or applause throughout the show was a clear indicator of how bored we all were. Only the video post-curtain call was able to stir any emotion from the audience.