J. J. Farr

A play by Ronald Harwood
Directed by Ronald Eyre
Presented by Robert Fox and Memorial Films
18 November 1987
Phoenix Theatre

Decor: Jocelyn Herbert
Lighting: Rick Fisher

Peck's is the hardest task with the most unlikable and the least convincing of the six male characters.

- Francis King, Sunday Telegraph, 25 November 1987

Even the sacificed talents of Bob Peck and a hopelessly miscast Albert Finney cannot perform the miracle of making J.J. Farr believable.

- Jack Tinker, Independent, 20 November 1987

As Kenneth Lowrie, Bob Peck has the most difficult role, to which he brings both intelligence and sincerity.

- Charles Osborne, Daily Telegraph, 20 November 1987

Bob Peck as his opponent has the monstrously difficult task of playing a spiritual and intellectual bully; and it is greatly to Mr Peck's credit that we manage to regrain from hissing him every time he appears.

- Michael Billington, Guardian, 20 November 1987

J.J. Farr at The Phoenix is a play about talking and Bob demonstrates his versatility as a man torn apart by his own beliefs. He co-stars with Albert Finney, who plays the title role of a priest held hostage by Arabs -- and they deliver two hours of earnest intellectual argument.

For Bob Peck fans, it must be said this play is no thriller in any sense of the word. It boasts fine performances from its entire cast and is, I am sure, very worthy -- but not exactly gripping.

- Hilary Bonner, Daily Mirror, 20 November 1987

Finney is extremely affecting as Farr, tortured in mind and body, but is rendered almost inarticulate by Harwood's inadequate script.

Bob Peck is more fortunate as the fierce anti-Christ Kenneth Lowrie, since the Devil gets all the best lines.

- Maureen Paton, Daily Express, 19 November 1987

This is, at times, a play that hovers on the borderlines of its own uncertainties, veering from political thriller to moral debate and back again as if hoping to latch onto something that might get us through the next confrontation. But it is elegantly and sharply written, and the five actors led by Peck who get to challenge Finney for longer or shorter moments manage to catch something of his intense and mesmeric energy, though that alone is what eventually saves Ronald Eyre's thoughtful production from grinding to a total halt. If we are to return to a lost world of articulate, faintly senior-common-room disputation then it is as well to do so in a company as strong as this one.

- Sheridan Morley, Punch, 2 December 1987