A Better Place

"Beckett loads her story with bizarre plots twists that never seem to build to anything…Everyone in this story is relatively privileged when it comes to real estate, a fact that could have served as a launching pad for a deeper exploration of the fallacies in our present conversation around inequality. Instead, Beckett settles for soap-operatic plot twists and a hastily constructed conclusion…The themes underlying 'A Better Place' are monumentally important. They deserve a better play." Full Review

“The playwright, Wendy Beckett, piles on so many lame conceits and garish cartoon characterizations that the amusement quotient hovers near zero...Filled with reams of unamusing dialogue and wildly improbable plot developments...If the director, Evan Bergman, can't make anything out of the script, he has seen to it that ‘A Better Place’ has a very attractive production design...In the buyer's market for good theatre, ‘A Better Place’ is likely to sit on the shelf, attracting very few takers.” Full Review

"If you ever need to answer the question “What has more holes than Swiss cheese?” you can say...Wendy Beckett’s ‘A Better Place,’ an...underwhelming, overacted comedy...‘A Better Place’’s plot advances when John wins $96,000 on a single race at Belmont and, on his way home, loses...the payout. The money’s loss sets in motion a sequence of egregious coincidences...you wouldn’t believe even if I told you." Full Review

“David L. Arsenault’s set is what’s memorable...Beckett, who has nothing in common with (sur)namesake Samuel when it comes to dramaturgical inspiration, is mocking the prominence that real estate has in Big Apple mindsets. She just isn’t very funny about it...Beckett has her own secret that some patrons may get on to and some may not...Just another element that isn’t especially amusing.” Full Review

"The mother/daughter bits work quite well...The gay couple are written as stereotypes...The younger character is superficial but suddenly opens up with a longing for the family he didn’t have. That’s about as deep as it gets. What’s missing is missing from the script...Finally, all is revealed, but it takes way too long to get to it. 'A Better Place' began with a good idea but ultimately didn’t gel. The plot is thin and relies on cliché, on silly underlining." Full Review

“Love. Money. Real Estate...there’s a better play to be written about these topics than Beckett’s mostly muddled one-act...Director Bergman has a lot on his hands with this slightly overstuffed play...At times, he gets the cast to rise above the material...But sometimes the lines just fall flat despite their efforts, and the show drags…For all its flaws, though, ‘Place’ does accomplish something special. No matter where you live, the place you really want to head to after seeing it is home.” Full Review

"Director Evan Bergman’s greatest moment is the show’s opening, a carefully staged dumb show that gives us a very clear sense of what life is like in these two apartments...There is very little information that is communicated for the remainder of the evening...This excellent ensemble of actors serves the play well...Ultimately, the play is somewhat repetitive...Though the production is aesthetically beautiful, there’s not enough action in the play to captivate the audience’s attention." Full Review

"The show is sold as a comedy about New York real estate…What I got instead was a rather repetitive, snooze of a show that simply plotted poor rent-controlled brownstone renters in Brooklyn situated across from a modern, all glass and steel high-rise…Casting seemed a hodge-podge of mix and match talents…There were several scenes that were absolutely out of left field...Waaaay too long, waaaay to repetitive…A hot mess of a show with little entertainment value." Full Review

"Les, the protagonist, is confident that the family in the apartment with no curtains across the way is rich and happy. If he were right, Ms. Beckett wouldn't have a play. As things stand, she doesn't have much of a play anyway…'A Better Place' begins with an amusing premise but swiftly runs amok. Despite the six actors' valiant efforts, Beckett's characters seldom behave in ways that are psychologically credible and the prolix dialogue is, by and large, devoid of verisimilitude." Full Review

"Unfortunately, this particular journey to get there is long, slow and predictable, offering no new insight and executed by stereotypical characters that are one dimensional…The dialogue does not move the plot or define the characters. Who cares if anyone ends up in a better place! The cast does what they can to entertain, usually relying on forced comedic situations but there are too many obstacles to overcome so they succumb to stereotypes to produce humor." Full Review

"Maitner delivers a first-class performance, and FitzGibbon matches him well despite having a less interesting role…There is definitely something here, and the idea of New Yorkers watching the lives of the people across the way is a good one...The trouble is that there is one too many clever twists to the plot and characters that are not quite as polished as one would like. Less is more, and here there is more rather than less. The show has great potential, which is not entirely realized." Full Review

"There is nothing in Evan Bergman’s direction nor the merely adequate performances all around that adds any type of amusement or tenderness…The multitude of scenes, one of which has Les just tidying up magazines, are endless and all prove innocuous…Somewhere in this languid mess of a play there indeed is a sharp satire about the have and have-nots. But you have to look mighty deep to find an ounce of that. As for 'A Better Place,' it was when I left the theater." Full Review

"Bergman has a thrust stage as her personal canvas...Maitner conveys Les as the self-limited middle-aged waiter faced with his own past. His character was funny and relatable...Fitzgibbon created a mirror for Maitner’s character and offered the comic relief and introspection. The two had good chemistry...The play was introspective (yet somewhat predictable) and showed the inner turmoil that many of us all face in our search for the next beginning." Full Review