Before Your Very Eyes
Closed 1h 10m
Before Your Very Eyes
71

Before Your Very Eyes NYC Reviews and Tickets

71%
(23 Reviews)
Positive
74%
Mixed
9%
Negative
17%
Members say
Thought-provoking, Ambitious, Clever, Absorbing, Original

About the Show

The Public Theater and international avant-garde troupe Gob Squad present the US premiere about the lives of seven individuals living in fast forward.

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Member Reviews (23)

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650 Reviews | 284 Followers
29
Like watching a bad home movie

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?

479 Reviews | 262 Followers
95
Absorbing, Original, Creative, Inventive, Profound

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.

399 Reviews | 203 Followers
56
Absorbing, Great acting, Original, Intense, Disappointing

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.

407 Reviews | 67 Followers
40
Ambitious, Confusing, Disappointing, Excruciating, Quirky

See it if you like watching talented preteens with a lot of energy

Don't see it if you like unusual concepts that hit.

276 Reviews | 475 Followers
75
Ambitious, Edgy, Thought-provoking, Refreshing

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.

178 Reviews | 280 Followers
40
Shallow, Amateurish, Indulgent, Plotless, Overlong

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

137 Reviews | 124 Followers
60
Quirky, Thought-provoking, Slow, Banal, Clever

See it if You love seeing children on stage

Don't see it if You need a clear plot

111 Reviews | 208 Followers
35
Boring, Experimental, Disappointing, Overrated, Slow

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)

The New York Times
October 26th, 2015

"'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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Time Out New York
October 28th, 2015

"'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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Theatermania
October 26th, 2015

"'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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BroadwayWorld
October 27th, 2015

"'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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Talkin' Broadway
October 26th, 2015

"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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Theater Pizzazz
November 8th, 2015

"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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CurtainUp
October 27th, 2015

"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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Front Row Center
November 2nd, 2015

"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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