Antlia Pneumatica NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (79)
See it if you want to see an ambitious work.
Don't see it if if you get annoyed at confusing, mixed up, plots
See it if you enjoy very pretentious theatre. This is a very big disappointment from Anne Washburn. Even Ken Rus School couldn't fix this disaster.
Don't see it if you're smart. Stay away.
See it if Anne Washburn continues to playfully stretch & prod theatrical conventions. Here she is aided by amazing production design & an able cast.
Don't see it if looking at an empty stage while listening to an epic dirge for a dead ant will not fill you with equal parts sadness and joy
See it if If you are an Anne Washburn fan or enjoy quirky dramas.
Don't see it if If you like clear, well crafted storylines.
See it if you want to see everything this season - otherwise it is perfectly skippable.
Don't see it if you want the "must see" show of the season. It needs some work
See it if You like thoughtful, enigmatic plays with strong performances.
Don't see it if You want a more cohesive story. The play never quite seems sure what it wants to be doing.
See it if you like quiet, quirky theater that is subtle and beautifully staged with well-rounded performances and an unconventional script.
Don't see it if you find Washburn's work to be too weird/pretentious or have difficulty with slow-paced works with little plot.
See it if you prefer ambition to content and don't need to be given much to feel compelled in the theater.
Don't see it if you're looking for a tangible story/experience.
Critic Reviews (32)
"It’s rather frustrating to know Washburn could meet the demands of a more traditional play but wouldn’t commit. 'Antlia Pneumatica' is certainly well acted, well directed and given a handsome production. For a seemingly conventional play, it’s also rather bold and interesting in its sound design...Yet even here 'Antlia Pneumatica' falls a little short...ultimately not adding up to much. Just like, I fear, the show itself."
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"Not a great deal happens as folks stand around chatting for an hour and 45 minutes...Director Ken Rus Schmoll manages to create an uncertain atmosphere that matches the questions we have about these folks...Not enough invested in the characters. It takes us a while to figure out who they are and what their relationships to each other are...'Antlia Pneumatica' makes us feel more like we showed up at the wrong house by mistake."
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"Washburn plays with time and memory so that even while we're watching 'Antlia Pneumatica', we are questioning what's real. As a theatrical experience, that's interesting...'Antlia Pneumatica' is a somewhat challenging play. As I was watching it, I didn't feel fully engrossed, but the more I think about it, the more I appreciate the experience..It's almost like you have to let this feast for your senses happen to you, and then let your memory take over."
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"Anne Washburn provides a realistic, disarming ghost tale, invigorated with ruminations about time and space, in her new play. A quietly unsettling production directed by Ken Rus Schmoll...'Antlia Pneumatica' is a tender examination of everyday concerns...Scenes of shared memories between the friends are effectively given ritualistic, elegiac treatments...Schmoll has satisfactorily overlaid the realism and ordinariness with an atmosphere of mystery."
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"A typically elegant production by Ken Rus Schmoll…At first, Washburn seems to set the stage for wistful autumnal reminiscence, but she soon lights out for richer and stranger terrain…Amid such looming questions, Schmoll's production finds grace in the details…We're left retroactively wondering what was real and what was reverie, as that most basic of natural laws — the hard division between life and death — appears to dissolve."
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"In 'Antlia Pneumatica', language prevails– there are segments of it when the stage is dark and the characters barely visible...Watching the fourth wall crumble as characters challenge the audience directly is exciting. Is the oft glacial pacing necessary to make us listen more intently? There is wit and on occassional depth, even philosophy in what seems like a communal mid-life crisis...Ken Rus Schmoll directs the cast whose dry delivery is often very funny."
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"'Antlia Pneumatica' is eccentric and difficult but rewarding, filled with tangents and blocks of unsteady information...This play is like an explosion of matter that cannot be put back into any proper order, and Washburn sees a freedom in that. She likes to have her characters speak of small things and large things but skips the middle ground that most plays reside in. This might be irritating to some, but to others it will be liberating: post-play, post-apocalyptic, lost in space."
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"The characters in Washburn's play are merely cardboard cutouts with a few proficiencies superimposed to create a far-reaching, higgledy-piggledy narrative reduced to senseless minutiae. The result is a blasé high art affair spiked with idiosyncratic poetry and a narrative that baffles and exasperates, mostly because most of the more interesting components take place offstage and are narrated via pre-recorded tape."
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