See it if you like highly theatrical pieces w LOTS of chars, including a baby, goose, bunny. There's singing, dancing, swearing, and endless drinking.
Don't see it if you want meaning. Not much point. The ride is fun, but the end is overdone.& unsatisfying. 3+hrs flew by. Supernatural element out of place.
See it if to see a show that can only be described as theatre at its best! Spellbinding storytelling! Exquisite character development/plot/set/lights.
Don't see it if I can’t imagine anyone not liking this show. It’s long, 3.25 hours but with such a great performance that time flew by for me. Read more
See it if you appreciate good drama, intense, great characters, mostly brilliantly acted, well-directed long story, goes quick, makes you think.
Don't see it if you are not patient-long story told over a few days. The tight seats in the mezzanine very wearing. Young voices difficult to understand.
See it if Passions of love, war and revenge simmer in an Irish pressure cooker. Deep characters, outwardly virtuous, inwardly tainted. Chilling.
Don't see it if You are not interested in a long 3 act play with a large cast and lots of character development. You are not up for a dark journey.
See it if you are familiar with Irish politics, enjoy complex family dramas, find ensemble work appealing, are impressed by fabulous staging...
Don't see it if you have problems understanding performers with accents. Several significant comments slipped past me.
See it if you can; u want to see a play that touches on all the feels: it's powerful, playful, heartbreaking, joyous, enraging, engrossing & thrilling
Don't see it if u don't have 3+ hours to devote to this fascinating multi-generational family saga [otherwise, there's no reason to miss this masterpiece]. Read more
See it if you like Irish plays, follow this playwright, enjoy gripping, rambunctious family tales, like romance, suspense and realistic stories
Don't see it if you're not fond of Irish plays, plays with many, many characters & atmosphere, having to pay attention, don't want to recall "the troubles" Read more
See it if you enjoy a powerful drama about a very intense time in Ireland's history. Great acting and dialogue.
Don't see it if you have trouble with Irish accents or do not like violence or talks about violence. Read more
"A generosity of substance and spirit rarely seen on the stage anymore...Directed with sweeping passion and meticulous care by Sam Mendes...This is theater as charged and cluttered and expansive as life itself. And the three and a quarter hours and 21 parts required to tell its story barely seem long enough to contain all it has to give us...By the end of this magnificent drama, Butterworth has connected the contradictions with a skill that takes the breath away."
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"The whole thrilling production seems alive, as few Broadway shows do, with the clutter and scope of reality...'The Ferryman' never drags, in part because Butterworth continually shifts and expands the play’s focus...At once a romance, a thriller and a multigenrational family drama, 'The Ferryman' is also more than those things...A seismic experience at the theater...You sense the rumbles and you feel the shaking as you wait for this magnificent and harrowing play to crack open."
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"A fascinating mixture of prodigious craftsmanship and brazen cultural and dramatic cliché...Butterworth’s writerly skill is almost enough to dazzle us into submission...I could feel myself responding chemically, even as my brain remained aware of a litany of cultural stereotypes...Mendes is at his best in the moment-to-moment work with these instinctive, powerful performers...It’s a head-trippy presentation of rich, authentic-seeming texture inside a romanticized, larger-than-life box."
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"Because of its length—more than three hours—the play feels epic, but the actual plot is fairly simple. Most of the time is spent in the presence of the family as they go about their business, until, suddenly, the business becomes impossible to do. Part of the art here is in how the everyday turns sinister...Death and politics are always coming for you, Butterworth’s play seems to say."
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"A crackling thriller woven into the vibrant canvas of a character-driven portrait of big-family...A work almost bursting with joy and celebration, with dance and song exploding out of fierce cultural identity, and with rambunctious humor and eccentricity...Mendes and Butterworth inject a chill into seemingly lighthearted moments, steadily ratcheting up the suspense until a closing scene that leaves you shocked and breathless...This is rich, full-throated theater not to be missed."
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"'The Ferryman' grips you, that much is true...You find yourself quickly swept up in the action of a clan of endlessly busy farmers and daughters, of characters drawn remarkably quickly and confidently...It’s a play of physical and emotional tension, a testament to Mendes’ ability to unearth the anxiety in a dance party and Butterworth’s talent for history...This is a kitchen drama that only double-faces into a thriller, and it’s a thumping good one — a well-built, well-executed."
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"Glorious is not too strong a word for director Sam Mendes’s production...Flawless ensemble work by a large and splendid cast adds depth to the characters in this sprawling drama that is at once a domestic calamity and a political tragedy...The domestic dramas in this household are as primal as those in any Greek tragedy, if not as classically restrained...We can only watch in horror and dread as the extraordinary characters that Butterworth has brought to life are snuffed out."
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“A kind of Irish counterpart to ‘August: Osage County’, a...study of a close-knit rural family that is being pulled apart...It builds to an explosively potent surprise ending whose force is diminished by the fact that it takes Butterworth most of the garrulous first act to finally get down to dramatic business...See ‘The Ferryman’ by all means, for most of it is superb. Bear in mind, though, that it would have been significantly more effective had it been an hour shorter.”
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