New York toasts Mendes play

Director Sam Mendes has scored yet another critical triumph with the transfer of two of his Donmar Warehouse plays to the New York stage.

Critics declared the double production of Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night “magnificent”, “compelling” and “revelatory”.

Mendes, the partner of Kate Winslet, staged the Chekhov and Shakespeare classics as his swansong at London’s Donmar Warehouse last year.

They have now transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a British cast, including actress Emily Watson, and opened to rave reviews.

Trade bible Variety said: “Superb individually, the productions should really be considered (and experienced) as a single, magnificent achievement.

“They offer further proof, if any were needed, of the director’s plentiful talents.”

Watson, star of Red Dragon and Hilary and Jackie, was described as “simply transfixing”.

The New York Post said the “compelling” productions “offer New York audiences a rare chance to see a first-rate ensemble”.

They hailed Simon Russell Beale, who plays Vanya in the Chekhov play and Malvolio in Twelfth Night, as “perhaps the greatest stage actor of his generation”.

Mendes, 37, who won an Oscar for his debut film American Beauty, is concentrating on work in the US after a decade as the Donmar’s artistic director.

He is also preparing to stage the musical Gypsy on Broadway in the spring.