FLESH WOUND

"...but the night belongs to Walker. His visceral language and deftly comic strokes prove this play is much more than skin deep".
Sunday Tribune, Ireland, 25/07/2004

"From violent start to Tarentino showdown, Che Walker's play for The Royal Court 'effs' its way across stage in a glorious splatter of visceral theatre."

"Walker drives this play with an exuberant love of the twist and turn, texture and humour of English, the contrast of the banal and the extravagant in words and an acute awareness of linguistic special effects."

"Written in Walker's characteristically poetic cadences and presented in a raw, unflinching production by Wilson Milam, Flesh Wound combines an eye for the delicate detail in the unlovely and the mundane, with horrible life-like, bone-crunching violence."
Sam Marlowe, What's on in London, London, 28/05/2003

"Che Walker's Flesh Wound is far much more than skin deep. Not since The Lieutenant of Inishmore has there been such a giddy mixture of horror and hilarity, or such an acute examination of the switchback between cruelty and sentimentality...This is a vibrant occasion".
Observer Review, London, 25/05/2003

"Family violence and criminal mayhem in a bleak high-rise council flat. Che Walker's play takes us into familiar Royal Court territory. But it's a well above average example of the genre - utterly absorbing, frequently funny."
John Gross, Critic's Choice, Sunday Telegraph Review, London, 01/06/2003

"Che Walker's scorching play is about rime and its price. Crime pays but it can also pay you back...Your own flesh wounds you, as the title suggests. An angry, hideously funny play."
Sunday Times (Culture), London, 01/06/2003

"Che Walker's new three hander is a beguiling piece of brutally casual social realism and highly entertaining black farce. Both the heightened, exhilarating dialogue and pacy direction never let up: the plot is full of tense, sometimes flashy twists pivoting on shifting family allegiances that underline the precarious notions of family by which the community morally defines itself."
Claire Allfree, Metro, London, 23/05/2003

"The brusque, bathetic poetry of back-street Camden, where courtly language seeks to conceal the coarsest behaviour, is Walker's lingua franca. Flesh and blood and honour are his themes. And the world he depicts, from one crappity top floor flat in Somers Town, is one that's cut entirely adrift from its moral compass."
Brian Logan, Time Out, London, 28/05/2003

"Archly constructed but disgracefully riveting, Walker confirms his promise and obviously writes 'theatre'."
The Daily Mail, London, 30/05/2003

"Thus Che Walker's play crackles into compelling life, a scene of high-rise low lives. The dialogue is first rate."
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard (Metro Life), London, 05/06/2003

"From this extraordinary mange a trois, a remarkable drama unfolds in explosive fashion. This is a modern morality tale. Writer Che Walker's dialogue swings between swearing cockney vulgarity and erudite pearls of wisdom form a trio who reveal themselves to be highly intelligent. Flesh Wound is 90 minutes of truly absorbing drama. Better than EastEnders ever was. And I don't say that lightly!"
Kevin O'Sullivan, The Daily Mirror, London, 22/05/2003

"LAUGHING out loud only to gasp at the sheer inappropriateness of that laugh. This is the feeling that is triggered when watching Ché Walker’s play Flesh Wound which premiered at the Royal Court in Sloane Square last week, a feeling made more profound if you live anywhere near Camden."
Claire Davies, Camden New Journal, 29/05/2003