Can't work out whether to go and see England People Very Nice at the National Theatre.
Perhaps I am being po of the face and of the mind when I read the title and infer that the production will be a throwback to the hilarious-in-reverse Mind Your Language "comedy" series on TV in the 1970s.
The fact that the right-wing press offered such fulsome praise would usually be enough to guarantee the fixing of a Mortise lock and clamp on my wallet during the play's run.
Certainly this "riotous journey through four waves of immigration from the 17th century to today" that was written with "scurrilous bravura" (National Theatre's words, not mine) has split even liberal commentators.
The Pickled Politics blog carried a review, which, although at times generous, remarked that part two of the play resembled The Spectator's take on Brick Lane and reflected the worst elements of tabloid coverage of Muslim radicals and extremists.
Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown commented that laughing at the play left a nasty taste in her mouth.
But sociologist Rupa Huq wrote that the play, far from slamming multiculturalism, celebrated it and was "an "absorbing, warm and funny account".
Steve Platt's Plattitude pointed out something that escaped the attention of most reviewers: namely, that the people who came out worst were the white working-classes, portrayed as murderous racists. And that, Platt wrote, was unfair and not very funny.
All of which leaves me no closer to a decision. I will probably make up my mind in August, just as the play finishes its run.
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