Reviews were largely unfavorable.
The Guardians
Michael Billington suggested that the two characters reflect the
Bush-
Blair political relationship and noted that "the sexuality of politics" takes centrestage. He said that
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? is "a short play you almost need to hear twice, or read straight after, to get the full force".
Benedict Nightingale of
The Times criticised the playwright's perspective as one-sided, but recognised an underlying anxiety and anger. Paul Taylor of
The Independent also described the work as "diabolically clever but one-sided", and a "shallow piece of shrill US-baiting" in comparison to
Far Away. Taylor argued, "It may be wickedly witty in the elliptical fragmentation of the dialogue and the canniness with which it understands the black comedy of mutual dependence. But in pretending that it has found the essential in Britain's relationship with America and in allowing Blair's relationship with Bush to colour the entire proceedings, it is in fact a travesty version of the Special Relationship, which is historically far more nuanced than you would ever deduce from this." David Benedict of
Variety stated that
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? is "drama at its most austerely pure" and wrote, "Unlike dramatists who treat auds as passive, letting them soak up overly explanatory exposition and information, Churchill withholds." But the critic also stated that "Churchill reveals her hand too early. With auds swiftly attuned to the "real" content – the shared guilt and responsibility for global politics and the dominance of bullying Western power plays – in dramatic terms, the play doesn’t develop. Although ideas of individual scenes change, the thrust grows predictable." In 2008, David Rooney wrote a lukewarm review for the same magazine. The critic praised the play as having "mordant humor that mercilessly nails the oblivious arrogance of American government". But Rooney complained that the characters don't evolve beyond being national mouthpieces, and argued that certain elements suggest eagerness by Churchill "to lay blame at the feet of all Americans while reserving her scorn on the other side of the pond for toadying politicians. [...] when your main character’s unrepentant guilt is established from the outset, the drama becomes less a developing conflict than an articulate, masterfully staged harangue." Hilton Als of
The New Yorker lauded the play as "wildly beautiful and entertaining", but also argued that because Churchill "is a playwright of ideas, she sometimes verges on didacticism, and toward the middle of the play her outrage over America’s conduct in the Middle East begins to eclipse our perception of what’s happening between the two men."
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times stated that while on paper
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? "reads as a minor work from a major playwright, little more than a political poison-pen letter [...] with Ms. Churchill, one of the most inventive and incisive dramatists of her generation, even rabid venting takes the form of a brave, canny exploration of theatrical language that comes to startling life on the stage." Jeremy McCarter of
New York magazine derided the playwright's attack on the United States as "cartoonish", and found the work minor in comparison to other Churchill plays.
The Telegraph's Charles Spencer said in 2012 that the play is "as glib and nasty a piece of anti-American agitprop as I have ever seen." Conversely,
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? was described in
Varsity as "a sort of toxic love song, with grating, malicious politics woven into poetics, which through its darkness is often funny, if bitterly so." The review describes Churchill as conjuring "another semi-fantastical, semi-commentative great" with a "deeply captivating" political narrative. ==References==