Fulfillment NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (9)
See it if you like shows that are crass and challenging.
Don't see it if you are a prude.
See it if you want comments on race and happiness snuck in behind nudity, inventive staging, and subtle comedy. Was slow at times, but overall good.
Don't see it if you don't want to be confronted head on (no pun intended) with male genitalia. You want a more direct examination on racism and fulfillment.
See it if shows absurdity of working in Amazon-like fulfill ctr; movingly shows lack of "fulfillment" & hopelessness of lives of 4 American types
Don't see it if after hilarious opening scenes (how a New Yorker is a fish out of water in NMexico) the play flags and by the end has petered out entirely Read more
See it if you appreciate a distinctive POV that evokes, via design & action, the pressures on an upwardly mobile black man. It gets under the skin.
Don't see it if showing skin and simulated sex, up close & impersonal, makes you uncomfortable. Discomfort of the senses & sensibilities is the point here.
See it if You don't mind graphic sex and violence; want to think about sex and racism like creative staging
Don't see it if queasy about nudity and sex scenes
See it if You enjoy creative staging, you want an entertaining play with depth.
Don't see it if Graphic sex and nudity bother you
See it if you like provocative theater
Don't see it if you are offended by nudity onstage
See it if you enjoy shows with a meaningful message
Don't see it if you are offended by full frontal male nudity and realistic sex acts on stage
Critic Reviews (19)
"Those who have been in any doubt about what Mr. Bradshaw has been trying to say in his earlier works are likely to have a firmer grasp on the matter after seeing 'Fulfillment.' This isn’t electrifying theater, not the kind that makes jaws drop. But it provides a sharply legible index to the mind and method of an original playwright who refuses to embrace easy or consoling answers to the puzzles called human beings."
Read more
"Bradshaw’s playwriting approach is fairly well established: cheerful but wooden dialogue, characters acting on their worst impulses, schematic plots and a refusal to judge. The plays are usually bracing and funny, and Bradshaw truly has his own style. Sometimes the transgression coincides with substance. But more often, it’s a formula: human ids unleashed for cringe comedy and cheap thrills. 'Fulfillment' is basically an urban dramedy slathered in Bradshaw sauce."
Read more
"'Fulfillment' is one of the playwright’s most accessible and entertaining works — a pretty funny comedy, but with full frontal. What hasn’t changed is Bradshaw’s concern with race, gender and power...The show, well-directed by Ethan McSweeny, is funniest when the situations become increasingly heated while the tone remains matter-of-fact...We find ourselves in these characters’ heads — which is actually more interesting than finding ourselves almost in their beds."
Read more
"Bradshaw's mélange of race, power, and ambition will leave more than a few audience members feeling queasy...Ethan McSweeny's unrelenting production churns forward as Bradshaw's short, cruel scenes cut from one to the next...We're not dispassionately observing this urban jungle from a distance; we're living in it, and it is terrifying."
Read more
"Director Ethan McSweeney's production seems to intentionally lack emotion. Perhaps the point is that the characters are so set on seeking fulfillment with possessions and recognition that they forget to relate to other people. 'Fulfillment' is certainly more interesting than Bradshaw's past work but the characters still seem undercooked."
Read more
"The playwright makes no secret of his disdain for the niceties of conventional drama, but he has little to offer in place of them. His plays are basically adult comic books. The plots are jerry-rigged, the characters are flat. There are plentiful references to hot-button topics (racism, miscarriage, pedophilia), and of course all those sexual encounters. Strikingly absent are wit, irony, or a sense of how the real world works."
Read more
"Bradshaw is not a careful constructor of plays, and he tends to incorporate too many tangential plot elements, but with 'Fulfillment' he is on to something significant by presenting us with both a serious theme and complicated characters whose ids and superegos are in constant battle...'Fulfillment' has a lot going for it, including its excellent ensemble of actors under Ethan McSweeny’s direction."
Read more
"The Flea Theater’s production, directed to emphasize its undercurrents of eroticism and anger by Ethan McSweeny, is both shocking and sad...The acting throughout was outstanding, so much so that it was often difficult to watch the action without wincing and turning away."
Read more