THE SEAGULL by Chekhov
Birmingham Rep
Foster provides a taut and edgy Konstantin, a performance of raw nerve-endings and choked rage.
The Times
WHILE THE SUN SHINES by Rattigan
The Old Rep Theatre
Neal Foster, who has founded The Birmingham Stage Company, plays Harpenden with much more versatility than one has any right to expect from a straight male lead.
The Financial Times
HAMLET - AS SHAKESPEARE ALWAYS WANTED IT PERFORMED - SO HE TELL ME by Bennett, Frayn and Curtis
Duke of York’s Theatre, London
The double act of Ian Angus Wilkie and Neal Foster is especially strong in this exuberantly talented cast, with a winning combination of meticulous perfectionism
Time Out
BEAU JEST by Sherman
The Old Rep and National Tour
Neal Foster is deliciously lugubrious as Sarah's brother in this enjoyable and utterly kosher production.
Time Out
CRYSTAL CLEAR by Young
The Old Rep and King’s Head Theatre, London
As feelings of being lost of worthless set in, stubborn-humoured Richard's intense struggle, growing anguish and frustration is marvellously captured by Neal Foster.
London What's On
Neal Foster's blistering, rigorous production strips away the potential for histrionics and takes a bleak emotional audit of the situation. Unsworth and Foster bond with the superglue of immaculate technique.
Critics Choice - Time Out
THE BFG by Dahl
The Old Rep
Neal Foster's BFG is wonderful - delivering the verbatim of Dahl's dialogue with a faintly West County roll, all naïve Forest Gump, and easily bewildered, just as he should be.
What's On
Perhaps the nicest thing about the BFG is the Joycean vocabulary which Dahl bestows on his Big Friendly Gant. Neal Foster not only manages to get his tongue round it all but is obviously enjoying himself in the process, which is highly infectious.
Birmingham Post
THE CRUCIBLE by Miller
The Old Rep and Salisbury Playhouse
Vivid portrayals abound with such quality casting as Carolyn Backhouse as Abigail and Neal Foster as Danforth.
Salisbury Journal
The passionate playing - particularly from Martin Turner as Proctor and Neal Foster as the icy inquisitor Danforth gives brilliant structure to the evening.
Birmingham Post
Outstanding too is The Birmingham Stage Company's actor manager Neal Foster, who brings a sinister edge to the role of Deputy Governor Danforth.
Solihull Times
In an evening of gripping and absorbing drama, Neal Foster is excellent as Danforth.
Evening Mail
THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Williams
The Old Rep
From the moment Tom (Neal Foster) steps on to the stage, we are drawn into the tense and melodramatic world of the Wingfields. Williams would have been proud of Foster and McHale's powerful performances.
Express & Star
GEORGE'S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE by Dahl
The Old Rep
The role of Grandma is played superbly by Neal Foster.
Evening Mail
Among a great cast, there is cantankerous tour de force by the theatre's own supremo, Neal Foster.
What's On
SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER by Goldsmith
The Old Rep
From the opening moments, when Neal Foster steps forward to deliver Goldsmith's lamentation the demise of comedy, there is a feeling of great assurance. Diana Coupland and Neal Foster produce a wonderfully funny, double-edged conversation about London fashions.
The Stage
Under John Harrison's immaculate direction, Neal Foster looks and sounds every inch the London opportunist as a fine Hastings.
Birmingham Post
SPEED-THE-PLOW by Mamet
Pleasance, Edinburgh Festival
From the moment Neal Foster appears on the stage the audience knows it's hit upon a well-crafted, almost perfectly executed piece of theatre. This is Mamet at his best: excellently cast, beautifully played and crisply directed. You would be mad to miss it.
The Scotsman
Foster, Jezek and Bold take Mamet's diamonds and buff em till they shine like angel's tears. The lines flow so smoothly, it's as if they've lived these characters. Masterfully played with an intensity that electrifies.
The List
LIGHTING THE DAY by Lavie
Kings Head Theatre, London
Neal Foster plays Allen with callow charm in this enthralling production.
Evening Standard
Last seen in Edinburgh, it is no surprise to see Neal Foster in fine Mamet-esque form as the over-analytical Allen. Brilliantly depicted, the words linger long after the curtain has fallen. The Stage
OLEANNA by Mamet
The Old Rep
The autumn season is scarcely under way an already I want to be handing out awards. I saw the original production of OLEANNA at The Royal Court and while it is difficult to compare performances seen years apart my feeling is that this one is even better. What is in no doubt is the achievement of Neal Foster and Sophie Bold in rising to the challenge of Mamet's daunting text. Both, under John Harrison's direction, are magnificent.
The Birmingham Post
THE DICE HOUSE by Lucas
Pleasance, Edinburgh Festival
Neal Foster is Dr Ratner, the Dice Therapist himself. Were he any drier he would start to flake. This is a wonderful comic performance in a role which would be easy and less funny to overplay. Few serious actors today handle the schoolgirl look, much less pastel chiffon so well.
The Scotsman
Neal Foster excels as the quack psychiatrist prescribing dice therapy'. He minces around in all manner of fetching frocks, proudly displaying his John Cleese knees.
Fest
It's the twin-pronged perormance of the two psychiatrists which towers above all else here. Jeremy Crutchley, an arrogant, unhinged tour de force as Drabble and Neal Foster as the creepy, spittle spraying Ratner, play off each other brilliantly.
The Evening News
COLLISION by Leyton
The Old Red Lion, London
The highest tribute is the alacrity with which the actors take to the writing, including Neal Foster as Tom, a thoroughly educated cynic, in Leyton's hilarious analysis of sexual politics.
CRITICS' CHOICE - Time Out
With heartfelt world weariness, Neal Foster neatly dissects his triple emotional bypass of being in a dead-end job, dumped and depressed. In pitting his educated, dead-pan ennui against D's insane, primeval lust for life, he creates an unlikely double act in these electrifying performances.
The Stage
THE DICE HOUSE by Lucas
Arts Theatre, West End
Monty Python meets R D Laing in this inspired farcical comedy. Neal Foster has joyous comic moments as the shrink in thrall to the whim of the dice. It is outrageously funny and genuinely thought-provoking.
Daily Telegraph
Neal Foster as Ratner is repeatedly required to turn on a sixpence as each roll of the dice changes his conduct: on finding a patient's hand has been cut off, he offers, Let me phone for a (rolls dice) window cleaner,' barely missing a beat.
Financial Times
Ratner is consummately played by Neal Foster. Indeed, Drabble and Ratner almost justify admission, peppering their performances with wit and timing.
West End Extra
It is very funny indeed. Neal Foster is an hilarious imperturbable Ratner
Independent
THE RETURN by Reg Cribb
Old Red Lion Theatre
Neal Foster, as Simon, has the kind of part for which most actors yearn, that of a character who out of the blue kicks the audience into hanging on every word he says.
Sunday Times
PROOF by David Auburn
The Old Rep Theatre
Neal Foster, who rarely puts a foot wrong, plays Hal with the sweet naivety of an American college boy, caught up in something he never fully comprehends. The sequences between Foster and the equally gifted Sally Oliver resemble a highly professional tennis match where the ball never goes out of court. John Harrison's careful direction certainly takes The Birmingham Stage Company to new heights.
The Stage
Foster's Hal is marvellous. Incredibly gentle, we experience his love for Catherine and weep at his simple inability always to express it. Yet he is far, far from mathematical geek - this is a man we all like. The scenes between them are beautifully touching - by turns, raw, painful, joyous.
Reviewsgate
OTHELLO by Shakespeare
The Old Rep Theatre & The Bloomsbury
One of the marks of good theatre is when you watch a play you have seen countless times and find something new. Iago, the spider who spins the web in which everyone is ensnared, is so often portrayed a simply evil. Yet here, played by Neal Foster, is the friendliest, jauntiest, bluffest Iago you can imagine. This back-slapping solder is everyone’s friend – which is why his machinations are so believable. As each character falls for his charms, they have no idea he is the one twisting the knife. And his evil is so hearty that even the audience feel a certain respect for him. I am tempted to go back and watch it all over again.
Birmingham Mail
Sometimes a familiar story can seem wholly new, and Birmingham Stage Company’s Othello is so gripping that the three-hour traffic of the stage passes by in an instant. Much of the success is down to Neal Foster’s performance as Iago, a cunning psychopath who takes gleeful pleasure even in the exposure of his deception. He is a performer with an actor’s armoury of moves and gestures, a villain able to change the dynamic of any situation.
The Stage
It was Neal Foster as Iago who stole the show. The duplicitous and ambitious ensign is a favourite role for many actors and Foster relished the part. He drew in the audience, making them almost complicit with his evil plans, and you could hear the audible gasps of breath as he moved forward with his audacious plan. Skipping from charming, encouraging and gregarious to sly and conniving in a second, you felt the atmosphere darken as his plans unfolded.
Express & Star
But it is Neal Foster who steals the show as the malevolent Iago. Foster seems determined to extract every ounce of humour and innuendo from Shakespeare's script, creating an Iago which is even more sadistic and psychotic than the norm and leaving the audience in no doubt that this is truly the bard's ultimate villain.
Solihull Observer
SKELLIG by David Almond
The Old Rep & The Shaw
This wondrous and multi-layered story is riveting. Skellig, the ungrateful, arthritic tramp discovered in the garage, is powerfully played by Neal Foster. His clumsy presence is awesome, especially when he is brought into the light in redemptive scenes set against a background of stars in a night sky.
The Stage
This is simply an amazing piece of theatre. Neal Foster is excellent as Skellig. His transformation at the half way point is very effective – when he steps out of the shadows the years seem to fall off him
Solihull Times
Skellig is played by Neal Foster with an elemental, force-of-nature magnetism - he is far from likeable, but the audience can't take their eyes off him.
Birmingham Post
TWELFTH NIGHT by Shakespeare
The Old Rep and International Tour
This is a great ensemble piece, but I think the biggest guffaws went to Sir Andrew and Sir Toby (Neal Foster and Morgan Philpott). The drunken double-act went down a storm and if Shakespeare’s genius had extended to spin-offs, surely he would have written one for this duo.
The Solihull Times