Our Mother's Brief Affair NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (161)
See it if Linda Lavin is very good, you like memory plays
Don't see it if Artificial over dramatic
See it if You'd like to see Linda Lavin do what she does brilliantly
Don't see it if You expect more of a point to the writing
See it if You enjoy non-linear styles of writing and story telling, and jokes that are witty rather than slapstick.
Don't see it if You only like linear stories, need lots of fancy scenery and costumes, or don't appreciate a wry sense of humor with some serious moments.
See it if you enjoy seeing the master of Jewish mother comic timing (Lavin) delivering some deliciously sardonic rejoinders
Don't see it if you don't enjoy a play where the playwright had a clever idea but did not know where to take it in second act
See it if you're a Linda Lavin fan -- she salvages a part written as a New Yawk Jewish mother stereotype.
Don't see it if you prefer well-written plays - this one is very muddled and unsatisfying, with a completely unnecessary meta moment.
See it if yo enjoy pieces about reminiscing and family matters.
Don't see it if flashbacks are something you don't like interwoven in present day scenes.
See it if are a fan of the playwright or of Linda Lavin; if you want to understand mid-20th C life as a Jewish New York woman; you like family dramas
Don't see it if You hate fourth-wall-breaking, overly long explanations of the dramatic action; dislike over-reliance on sardonic "Jewish" one-liners
See it if you like Lavin, some very funny lines and ferreting out deeper meanings about life, memory and needing to make an impact in this life.
Don't see it if Some slow pacing and odd structure will leave you squirming.
Critic Reviews (52)
"As much as I enjoy watching Linda Lavin, whose performances bring a glow to whomever she portrays, she cannot rescue the dopey play that Richard Greenberg has written...It’s one thing for Anna to want to be close to history, but it is quite another to be on the wrong side of history. And it is yet another for a playwright, however well-intentioned, to come up with such a muddled piece of work."
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"Richard Greenberg is a smart, articulate, entertaining author whose specificity enriches his plays. 'Our Mother’s Brief Affair,' however, is less successful than most I’ve seen...While one understands the need to explain something of which few of us were aware, this is so detailed it veers on polemic...Director Lynne Meadow has kept transitions fluid from period to period. Two-handed scenes with Anna and Phil are sensitively realized."
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"What both tips 'Brief Affair' off-balance and makes it strangely fascinating is a bizarre plot twist, near the end of the first act…Lynne Meadow's thoughtful direction culls affecting performances from Greg Keller and Kate Arrington...But Lavin's richly nuanced performance is the production's anchor and its treasure...We may never get to know her fully, any more than her children do, but we leave grateful for the time we've had."
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"Like so many of Greenberg’s chamber-sized social studies, 'Our Mother’s Brief Affair' is witty and elegantly precise about funny, flawed individuals with a sense of history beyond the latest headline...Greenberg takes us on unexpected turns in what sound at first to be ordinary family secrets. Meadow brings a tender mercilessness to the style."
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"It's all delivered in such familiar detail...you wonder what if anything of interest could be on tap...In a show this diffuse, this uncertain as to what it wants to say, everything remains fuzzy, from the direction of Lyne Meadow to the lighting and costumes. The actors never exactly stumbled or dried up on their lines, but even seeing it after the show had opened, they felt tentative. When the story doesn't ring true, it can be awfully hard to remember your lines and even harder to bring them to life."
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"Greenberg reverts in 'Brief Affair' to an old problem: going for erudite witticisms at the expense of creating characters...With little effort by director Lynne Meadow to filter the author's voice, his word intoxication reduces Seth and Abby to mouthpieces…My wild guess is Greenberg started writing two different plays that weren't going anywhere, and decided to weld them together. Just for the heck of it."
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"The play ought to be an intricate study of personal and political betrayal but, though ably directed by Lynne Meadow, never quite delivers on the promise of its material...Greenberg’s inexhaustible supply of polished one-liners makes this an enjoyable evening nonetheless — as does Lavin’s performance, which culminates in a monologue that captures truths about love and death at which the rest of the play merely clutches."
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"It’s routine theater fodder, until the first act skids to a halt, lights come up and the kids break the fourth wall to explain that, to the best of their knowledge, the man their mother was caught up with was of some historical significance...It takes the generic, and I daresay hardly earth-shaking knowledge that a parent had an affair, and throws it up against a specific political event...It’s a beautifully performed play."
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