This week, Emily in Paris star Lily Collins swapped gadding about the City of Love for the trendy Catalonian capital as she made her West End debut opposite Money Heist's Alvaro Morte in this UK Premiere of Bess Wohl's funny, sexy and surprising thriller. Directed by Lynette Linton, Collins plays an American tourist who embarks on a one-night stand with Morte's gorgeous Spaniard. But as their encounter plays out, the pair discover that lust at first sight may be the only thing they have in common. Now playing at the Duke Of Yorkes Theatre, the play has received an extremely mixed bag of reviews from critics.

The Reviews: The Good, The Bad & The Meh

The Good

WhatsOnStage

"Collins is a revelation, as lively as she is as Emily, yet with a lovely capacity for stillness; as she listens to Manuel talk about love, she becomes becalmed, her shifting from foot to foot stopping as she becomes first enthralled and then appalled by what he is saying. When she talks about "the wedding industrial complex", she manages to mix dreaminess and despair, the sense of a Denver girl clinging to her illusions with a harder-nosed realisation that they may be fake.

Morte is equally impressive, beautifully timing his exasperation as Irene's various repetitive neurosis and conversational tropes appear, mining more deeply as the sadnesses in his own story begin to emerge.

It's a strangely old-fashioned concoction, not at all earth-shattering or ground-breaking, not always as truthful as it wants to be, or as revelatory as it hopes, yet always engrossing and warm-hearted. A gentle pleasure."

The Evening Standard

"Lily Collins makes a sensational stage debut opposite Money Heist's lvaro Morte in this two-hander about the worst hen-night cop-off ever, between a vacuous American chatterbox and an arrogant older Spaniard. The Emily in Paris star has presence and timing, and her appearance generates a crackle of excitement comparable to the mania that greeted Sarah Jessica Parker's at the Savoy in January."

The Bad

Timeout

"Really it's just not good enough - everyone here has the capacity to make work better than Barcelona, so exactly why they've settled on a formulaic two-hander that doesn't even feel written for a British audience is beyond me. Fans of Emily in Paris hoping for something in exactly the same ballpark are unlikely to feel actively cheated. But that's hardly an excuse."

The Meh

Financial Times

"The performances are compelling, however. Collins, in her stage debut, is a mercurial figure, zigzagging about like a butterfly, both physically and emotionally. Wohl gives Irene some great lines, which Collins delivers wittily: "I rely on other people not to sink to my level," she says, admitting that what she is doing is screwed up. She's never still, while Morte, in reply, has a quiet, contained quality. When they finally unpack their feelings, it's clear that her restlessness and his stillness have to do with their unhappiness. But in the end, despite its thrust, this feels like a curiously flimsy affair."

The Guardian

"There is an ambitious attempt here to interweave how we find our bearings in family histories and global politics. But that balance, much like the bittersweet tone of Wohl's elegiac drama, remains elusive in a production that carries its own what-might-have-been disappointment."

LondonTheatre

"While this run marks Barcelona's UK premiere, the play had its first outing in 2013 and is set in 2009. Debates about Iraq and terror attacks, while relevant later in the play, feel forced, as do Irene's repeated discussions around her ancestors' pioneer history and the huge cultural gulf between Americans and Europeans. Wohl's play truly sings when she hits us with some big revelations and these two strangers are shown not to be so dissimilar after all each struggling with their own demons, in need of another to show them the way out of the darkness."