At its core, and under the steady hand of director Stephen Daldry, Matthew Lopez's play is about the generation after AIDs and the relationship between two men, Eric Glass the neurotic New York hipster in a rent-controlled apartment and his boyfriend, the errant and ridiculously handsome writer Toby Darling. Eric is open and kind whereas Toby dodges depth and clings to arrogance. It is here that Lopez bases us, allowing a whole world to unfurl around them, hewn in remarkable character studies by Kyle Soller (Eric) and Andrew Burnap (Toby). And just as it's the story of a couple, it becomes the story of a community, it becomes the story of a generation (or two, or three), it becomes the story of a million lost dreams and voices - and then just as deftly, it is the story of Eric and Toby again. Lopez employs charm and intellect to create a true fiction, influenced by the classics of literature it expounds, even employing E.M Forster as a periphery character (played to perfection by Paul Hilton.) But facts are where it shatters you, where the AIDs crisis is recalled, where Republican policy is laid bare, where the simplicity of unadulterated love is impossible to describe or win. Lopez writes like a composer, his symphony moving on apace, yet throwing in references to earlier movements that floor you.

Read Kitty's full review here!