"The concept for Chris Goode’s [2007] show is disarmingly simple. Hippo World is a real website. It had an online guest book in which visitors could leave comments. In Hippo World Guest Book Chris Goode reads out a selection of the things which were written, starting with the first post and ending with the last, and giving a good taste of those in between. The result is quite simply astonishing. [...] How much one gets out of the piece depends entirely on how hard one looks at it. On a superficial level there is plenty of fun to be had just marvelling at the gibberish people feel compelled to write on the internet. On a slightly deeper level the piece suggests a melancholic delineation of inevitable collapse and entropy. Beyond this, at root, there is something intangibly beautiful and sad which lingers for far longer. This work both demands and generously rewards proper attention. Hippo World Guest Book is essential viewing." - Culture Wars
"Of course none of this stuff is really about hippos – it is about people, and how they relate to other people, and how online life is ultimately as messy and mixed up and illogical and endearing and demoralising and illuminating as offline life. Hippo World is also an interesting exercise in the nature of theatre and theatrical structures – by taking seemingly mundane found material and sculpting it into a piece of cleverly staged and engagingly enacted theatre, Goode has once again proved himself to be a master of the form." - Total Theatre
"Chris Goode is a talented writer and performer who should write some more of his own quirky solo pieces rather than relying on the outpourings of nobodies." - Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide
"I expected more facts. [...] The hour-long running time is probably about as much as the material will stand. Indeed, on the opening night a number of the audience, unable to sit through even sixty minutes, left during the performance. [...] It's sad that Chris Goode, a talented writer and performer, is reduced to performing such a text." - Bill Stone, What's On South West
"Chris Goode [...] really should have known better. [...] Probably the longest hour of my life." - Roger Cox, The Scotsman
