The Great Divorce (2015) NYC Reviews and Tickets

"This all makes sense in 'The Great Divorce'...At least it does after a few puzzling, artistically pretentious early scenes in the Fellowship for Performing Arts’ infinitely thought-provoking production...Three strong performances and Bill Castellino’s direction leave us challenged to understand Lewis’s mind but with enough well-formed hints to be consistently intriguing."
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"Lewis has some amusing and thought-provoking surprises up his sleeve...But 'The Great Divorce' is really a tract disguised as a novel; there is a distinct absence of drama here, and one begins to long for it...More damagingly, the director, Bill Castellino, has outfitted the production with an excess of technology...Oddly here, matters of the soul are upstaged by technical finesse."
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"Under the assured direction of Bill Castellino, three extremely talented actors play 19 characters among them, making them distinct and fully dimensional...'The Great Divorce' is a very theatrical staging of some deeply provocative questions. After you have forgotten the spectacular visuals, the play will leave you with much serious matter to think about."
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"Lewis’s text is riveting, as text...As drama, this work is not so riveting. It is a narration with a story line that is flimsy at best – what will our narrator choose? His fate, however, is not as intriguing as the stories that he and we witness. I can understand why someone would want to put this tale up on the stage, but to place it there without a dramatic hook waters down the premiss. As a result this play is more of a travelogue through Lewis’s philosophy than a drama that sticks to your ribs."
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"This adaptation is both pedantic and proselytizing. That does not mean it is less than successful. It simply means that the production feels preachy...The producers transform Lewis’s theological fantasy into an unapologetic sermon. The three actors tackle the play with zeal and bring authenticity and believability to the twenty-something characters…Bill Castellino directs the adaptation with a keen eye for detail and keeps the action moving."
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"Regardless of what theological implications the play provides, or the degree to which you’re interested in hearing arguments favoring Heaven over Hell, you may discover that 'The Great Divorce' simply lacks enough tension to hold your focus. The characters are too unreal, and seeing them all portrayed by the same actors only serves to heighten the churchy didacticism. 'The Great Divorce' can certainly be considered theatrical, but it’s a far cry from being dramatic."
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"The cinematic style nicely frames the parade of character studies. Bit by bit, Lewis’s argument comes into sharp relief in a show that is blessedly free of finger-wagging. The project does presuppose an audience interested in a literary mode of religious explanation, and to judge by the rapt crowd at Saturday afternoon’s largely full performance, 'Divorce' is reaching its congregation."
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"Aside from minor flaws the text is funny and provocative, the performances are first-rate, and the technical work is spot-on. Obviously, not everyone who reads this review is a Christian, and although Lewis’ raison d’être, in this and other works, is to make Christianity plain to all, this meditation on good and evil, on virtue and vice, and, particularly, on smugness, will have value to practitioners of all religions, and of none."
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