Reviews: The Hills of California

The name Jez Butterworth usually comes hand in hand with his magnum opus: Jerusalem. Having written a text often heralded as one of the best plays of the century, it is hard for pressure not to mount for his most recent theatre premiere: The Hills of California.

Following their multi-award-winning triumph, The Ferryman, Butterworth is joined by Sam Mendes, director of The Lehman Trilogy to return to the West End with this production.

Much like Butterworth's previous works, this text paints a dynamic portrait of a collection of characters, although this time it is set in a family-run hotel in Blackpool in the heatwave of 1976. Four sisters reunite by their mother's bedside, chopping between flashbacks to their childhood where they were raised to be a sparkly troupe of performers. As the play progresses, alliances devolve into childish quips and jibes, only brought together by the impending grief of their mother's death.