887 NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (18)
See it if You know who Robert Lepage is and enjoy his avant-garde works. He uses his skills to tell the story of his childhood in Quebec.
Don't see it if You do not like solo performances. This is not in the form of a dramatic play with many characters. You dislike a few foreign words. Read more
See it if Lepage, the accomplished and sometimes controversial director, explores how memory works. Focuses on his childhood and Quebec separatism
Don't see it if Lucky to sit in the front and able to see every nook and cranny of the amazing set. Seven stagehands to operate. Lepage gives it his all Read more
See it if You want to learn about late 20th Century French Canadian social issues.
Don't see it if Like me, you don't like one person shows that cannot transcend the inherent limitations of the form.
See it if You want to enjoy a masterful solo performance that, with a very clever staging, recreates the author's childhood memories.
Don't see it if You don't like minimalistic solo performances. This show is basically a " memoir " that might look slow at times. It is partially in French
See it if you want a clever, wonderful, thought-provoking piece with humor. it's one of a kind.
Don't see it if No reason not to see it.
See it if you like a tale well told, with bits of humor, lots of charm and a clever set constantly morphing.
Don't see it if you don't like one-man shows, no matter how good
See it if You appreciate great storytelling, human and personal stories in greater context, inventive staging, and/or interested in Canadian history
Don't see it if You don't like one person theater- though it's much more than that
See it if You want to see an enfant terrible grown up but still playing with toys, only now it's a huge box of tricks engineered by his Ex Machina Co.
Don't see it if You don't like one-person shows, or toys or don't think Canadians can be egotistical, political and charming!
Critic Reviews (13)
“A shabby apartment building becomes a cabinet of wonders in Ex Machina’s glittering ‘887’…The show’s beginning is seductive, brazen…The play has its excessively tangential moments and some indulgent ones, too…Its best moments share a childlike simplicity…There are many technological marvels but they’re humanely scaled and rarely deployed for their own sake. Raw emotional force builds from the accretion of slight moments of remembrance and discovery.”
Read more
“In the heart-stoppingly gorgeous ‘887,’ the auteur is deft and perfect again, meshing reminiscence and images together with a watchmaker's care…The gentle memory show combusts into a political cri de coeur. Details from earlier in the play explode like timed charges…You leave, at least partially knowing how he felt. A day later, I can still feel the show smoldering its way through my synapses—searing its way into being unforgettable.”
Read more
“An intensely personal revisiting of his childhood in Quebec...If '887’ is essentially the story of a memory exercise, it is all the more authentic as the presentation of life as it is lived, without much time to connect the dots. What makes the show memorable is its artistry. ‘887’ is theater on a grand scale...It is storytelling as great performance, with Lepage moving seamlessly through childhood and adulthood...Proof again of Lepage’s unparalleled powers of observation and creative genius."
Read more
"There’s a theme bubbling beneath the surface about class and opportunity, and the suggestion that the great movements of history were determined by injustice and inequality. Lepage continues to develop his work beyond opening night and he may yet find more mileage in the story of his grandmother, whose memory loss chimes with the themes of '887' but doesn’t fully connect. That, though, is a minor niggle in a work that delights, mesmerizes and provokes."
Read more
"Lepage proves he needs to consistently push the boundaries and nowhere is that more evident than in his technical wizardry...Lepage is an artist who is constantly striving for intellectual inquiry and he adds new layers to the piece by questioning the act of remembering itself...The foundations of the show, then, are simple, personal; the ramifications complex, far-reaching. The tone is wistful but not without insouciant wit and self-irony."
Read more
"'887' glides smoothly through time and place, artfully constructing a cloud of associations as it goes...Lepage never ties everything together, preferring that cloud to anything more concrete...Even if you don't come away with fresh understanding of history and memory, it's a beguiling show, full of ultra-pleasing theatricality...Only afterwards do you realise how little it leaves behind, as ephemeral as a memory. But then, maybe, that's the point."
Read more
"A deeply autobiographical examination of memory and belonging...Lepage’s father — a taxi driver working all hours to provide for his wife, four children and an aging mother — is the hero of the piece, while Lepage accounts himself honestly as sometimes brittle and egotistical, with several jokes at his own expense. There are slightly awkward 'conversations' with invisible characters on stage, but two hours, with no interval, of often ingenious storytelling never pales."
Read more
"How to remember? He tries an ancient method – the memory palace: think of a place you know well, assign to areas within it those things you want to recall. This subtly develops into an exploration of what makes a life worthwhile, a society worth living in...Lepage dazzlingly creates shifting perspectives to conjure his unique private-public memoryscape...This unostentatious, meticulously crafted two-hour performance is touching, intimate, powerful."
Read more
Trailer
Watch This Next (3)
Stephen Sondheim's classic musical that intertwines the plots of classic fairy tales.
A new musical based on the young adult novel by bestselling author Jodi Picoult and her daughter.
The West End play based on Khaled Hosseini's international best-selling novel comes to Broadway.