Before Your Very Eyes NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (23)
See it if you enjoy watching high-spirited young actors moving and acting spontaneously
Don't see it if you don't think good theater is provided by observing young actors in unstructured play while contemplating the mystery of death; huh?
See it if you enjoy experimental theatre at its finest. The cast I saw were all astonishing, no mean feat from actors so young.
Don't see it if you do not like experimental theatre and do not like being moved and forced to think about your choices made in life.
See it if Interesting concept, energetically presented by a young, engaging cast.
Don't see it if Ultimately depressing. I wondered what the point was.
See it if you like watching talented preteens with a lot of energy
Don't see it if you like unusual concepts that hit.
See it if you want to see something innovative and experimental.
Don't see it if you want a clear plot. Don't see if you feel uncomfortable with children tackling challenging subject matter.
See it if You'd be satisfied seeing the staging of an okay idea presented with decent use of video but lacking anything else of interest
Don't see it if You expect time and money at The Public to deliver a fleshed-out performance instead of a "project" better suited to a fringe fest
See it if You love seeing children on stage
Don't see it if You need a clear plot
See it if you like media integration in a performance, watching kids do nothing interesting for 70 mins, like shows that try too hard to be cool.
Don't see it if i pulled muscles from rolling my eyes so much...hopefully that tells you something.
Critic Reviews (17)
"'Before Your Very Eyes' is a downer with an upper of a cast. That contrast is pretty much the entire point of this ingenious but ultimately unsurprising theatrical essay... Moments throb with a palpable human pulse and, implicitly, our awareness that all human pulses eventually stop...In stressing the way time erases rather than embellishes, 'Before Your Very Eyes' digs itself into the special rut of classic Everyman plays."
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"'Before' concerns itself with speed and time and death; it does so even before it asks the children to pretend to be teenagers or adults. Parts of this are heartbreaking...Gob Squad is poking fun at its own milieu here, and that self-critique fits poorly on these small shoulders. What fits better is exuberance and clarity, both of which are in full supply during the dance numbers and the video interviews."
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"'Before Your Very Eyes' is basically 70 minutes of watching kids play dress-up, but not the cutesy version that most adults would like to imagine. The Gob Squad's take on make-believe feels a lot more truthful. It's downright disarming in its honesty...While the show ostensibly depicts the very specific lifecycle of the upper middle-class Americans, it actually reveals how observant kids are of adult behavior. It may feel like we're watching them onstage, but they're actually watching us."
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"'Before Your Very Eyes' never quite reveals a purpose for its existence. The kids are terrific and fun to watch, but while the 70 minute experimental study is reasonably entertaining, it's not especially enlightening."
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"It would be an exaggeration to say I ever got lost in their game of dress-up, but during a couple of instances, I came close... If the human effects are undeniably good, and the performers a pleasure to watch, there's not enough of a structure to justify the effort that's gone into this. Almost a concept without an execution, 'Before Your Very Eyes' comes to rely on clichés more than it does the fresh thinking the setup portends."
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"We can readily see ourselves through the eyes of these youngsters, recalling the different stages of our lives and it has great emotional impact. These youngsters, however, may find themselves better prepared as they’re living through life on fast-forward (70 minutes) knowing more about what ultimately awaits them."
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"A mixture of joy, sorrow, laughter and tears is an almost assured response from the audience as seven child actors ages 9 to 14, pretend to see themselves maturing through progressive stages of life from the present to old age and death...The beauty of 'Before Your Very Eyes' is that we don't feel as if children are giving a performance."
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"Just as 'Boyhood' earned kudos for doing what Hollywood never does, 'Before Your Very Eyes' gets the same nod. No one does this in theater. So, when it works (again, moments), bravo! And when it doesn’t work (even at 70 minutes it got tedious) still bravo for innovation. If I were a high school drama teacher, I would hope to produce this wonderful piece at my school. If I were just a New Yorker looking for an interesting night out, I could do better."
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