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‘The Authenticator’ Opens at the National With Mixed Reviews

Reviews highlight standout acting, striking design, persistent structural flaws.

Overview

  • Critics publishing Friday deliver a split verdict on Winsome Pinnock’s new play at the National Theatre’s Dorfman in London.
  • The 90‑minute drama centers on two scholars asked to authenticate six 18th‑century ledgers tied to a Jamaican estate that bankrolled the fictional Harford House.
  • The production mixes country‑house comedy with ghost‑story touches and farce to probe slavery’s legacy, inherited responsibility, erasure and restitution.
  • Reviewers single out Rakie Ayola, Cherrelle Skeete and Sylvestra Le Touzel and admire Jon Bausor’s crumbling‑mansion set, while many cite excessive exposition and tangled, rushed plotting.
  • The show runs through May 9 under director Miranda Cromwell and taps into live debates over how Britain’s grand houses confront wealth rooted in slavery.