Devotion

Reviews of other work

Aleks Sierz writing for The Stage commented that the play was "written with gobsmacking psychological realism", applauding Butler's text for being "full of evasions, projections and concealed aggression". "This scorching drama", he concluded, "is raw, raucous and disturbing, with a final stage picture of almost intolerable bleakness."

Lyn Gardner of The Guardian felt that the author "has an acute ear for the cadences of everyday speech, and he shapes the narrative with impressive skill. But he tells you nothing that you haven't heard before: some people's lives are desperate and awful, some women will do anything to feel loved, and men are either useless or bastards, and sometimes both."^[2]

The Metro wrote that "Leo Butler's remarkable first full-length play has the acutely observed, unapologetic realism of a social documentary", claiming that "its episodic structure reads like blueprint snapshots of teenage life on sink estates in Sheffield". The review also praised lead actress Lyndsey Marshal who "beautifully played" the lead character, Lucy, "as a not entirely sympathetic mix of vicious brattishness and childlike vulnerability." While The Times added that "Dominic Cooke's taut direction ensures strong performance all round" in "an excellent production".

The Evening Standard praised the "witty, sinister and finally depressing drama", adding that "Butler boldly creates a psychologically complex female lead, surrounding her with unjudged dead-beats, each distinctively vocalising caustic Sheffield Vernacular. He also looks to be a master of stage craft, subtly manipulating his audience and characters with dramatic reversals, before arriving at an ending that is inevitable, surprising and loaded with pity and fear".