Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Baker, who The New York Times has called “one of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade,” returns for the second production of her Signature residency with The Antipodes. The Antipodes, National Theatre, review: a startling plunge into the abyss 05/11/2019. Connor Campbell Photos: Manuel Harlan. A play about people telling stories about telling stories. Annie Baker is a major force in modern American theatre whose work captures the sense of a nation battling with its identity, history and loss of purpose. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here. And Circle Mirror Transformation did it for me, both times. “Wily, slippery thing.” “Spiky little animal.” “One long nightmare.” These are the phrases that Annie Baker conjures up to describe her latest play at a pre-show talk at the National Theatre. Annie Baker returns to the National Theatre with The Antipodes - she does not change my mind about her 'We don’t feel like we have to self-censor and we can all just sit around telling stories. The result has allowed a gathering acquaintance with a genuinely startling theatrical voice that mixes detailed hyperrealism with a leap into the void. However, if you’re willing to put in the effort and have something to chew over then it very much is for you. Because that’s where the good stuff comes from' I've tried with Annie Baker, I really have. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online. The National Theatre is forging its own special relationship with American playwright Annie Baker, having now produced three of her plays within four years, all in their smallest Dorfman space. After impressing with first The Flick then John (2018), Baker returns to the National Theatre with The Antipodes, a new play about stories, which comes to the Dorfman Theatre following a critically acclaimed New York premiere. And it is fitting that The Antipodes should evoke images of phantasmagoric otherness, since its estranged realism delectably lends itself to ample talk about monsters … The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of John Roberts.The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. I loved The Antipodes so much I almost don’t want to write about it – because writing about it is putting an imperfect wrapping of words around something complex and magical, clumsily packaging it in a form that shows my own preoccupations, my own worldview. Anything I can say feels crude. The Antipodes is certainly not the play for you if you want an easy, purely entertaining night at the theatre. The Antipodes is at the National Theatre from 21 st October until 23 rd November 2019. Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Baker, who The New York Times has called “one of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade,” returns for the second production of her Signature residency with The Antipodes. A play about people telling stories about telling stories. Her characters are always people who, whether they realise it or not, dream of more, of being something or someone else but are economically and emotionally trapped in… Sawalha proposes to husband as they plan to renew their vows. I had hoped to join the appreciation society by seeing her 2017 piece THE ANTIPODES, in this new National Theatre production, its London premiere.But oh dear, I seem to have arrived at the Annie Barker party just as it’s going off the boil.