Fondly, Collette Richland NYC Reviews and Tickets

"Elevator Repair Service has come up with a head trip that is as organic as it is delirious. It’s called 'Fondly, Collette Richland.' And though what opened is advertised as a play, it is far closer to what happens in the privacy of your own mind when you’re in bed with your unconscious...A witty, fastidiously wrought and thoroughly disorienting visual and aural universe in which the solid and the known keep melting at the edges."
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"It spoils nothing to say this long, loopy piece ends on a mountain with society ladies squaring off against a satanic entity called the Krampus. John Collins’s richly layered, densely designed production (with a goofy-brilliant soundscape by Williams) rises to the whirling, morphing challenge of Kempson’s remarkable script. I haven’t been so bewildered yet so delighted in ages."
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"About a third of the audience left during the intermission, which finally arrived after nearly two hours. I have to believe that those who remained did so mostly out of politeness, believing that anyone with a vision so specifically bizarre must mean something important by it. I’m not convinced. Even if I were, I’d have left if I could, because worse than the nonsense — a lazy Susan of surrealistic clichés — is the aggression and insularity behind it."
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"At certain points, one starts to wonder whether the cast has any idea of what's going on. Despite this, the performances remain energetic and imaginative throughout... Theater is a give and take. As integral as theatermakers are to the performance process, so too is the audience. 'Fondly, Collette Richland' simply sinks under the weight of its own desire to please itself."
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"You can't really criticize 'Fondly, Collette Richland' for not making sense, when nobody involved ever saw that as a goal. I would note, however, that this sort of mad, abstract lark is nothing new. It is also best enjoyed in small doses; at over two-and-a-half hours, this one is a challenge to audience stamina the likes of which I have rarely seen."
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"It doesn't add up to anything profound, or even particularly entertaining. It exists for the sake of existing, a living proof of concept much more than a play with anything relevant to say...While watching it, you may find yourself haunted by the notion that just acknowledging the existence of the problem is not, in itself, a solution. Maybe that's the real point? Who knows? And, Kempson and Collins seem to be saying, who cares?"
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"The performance under review began as a sell-out. After intermission about thirty percent of the seats had been abandoned, but the decibels of audience laughter were undiminished...Playgoers can't rely for ballast on the familiar structure of a novel such as 'The Great Gatsby,' 'The Sun Also Rises,' or 'The Sound and the Fury.' There's potential for fun here, but the potential depends on a game and willing audience rising above the cognitive bumps in Kempson's dramatic road."
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"It’s an inside job, a show where snarky academics and performance artists can nudge each other and give a knowing wink, happy to be so much smarter than everyone else in the room...The rest of the audience is just bored, nodding off or checking their watches to see if the interminable first half of the show is ending any time soon so they can go...It’s simply not a play for people who enjoy a relaxing, or even mildly engaging, night at the theater."
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